(Washington Post)
The Hershey Co. has filed a trademark suit against an edible marijuana company for selling weed-infused snacks with packaging that mimics some of Hershey’s signature candies.
In the lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Denver, Hershey claims that the Colorado-based medical marijuana manufacturer Tincture Belle is selling products that look suspiciously like its Reese’s, Heath, Almond Joy and York Peppermint Pattie brands.
Not only are the products packaged in similar colors as the Hershey originals, the candy-making giant contends, their names are also reminiscent of their analogs: Hashees, Hasheath, Ganja Joy and Dabby Patty.
Hershey says that the packaging is not only a clear trademark violation, but also a safety risk to consumers — especially children — “who may not distinguish between Hershey’s candy products and defendants’ cannabis- and/or tetrahydrocannabinol-based products.”
Although recreational and medicinal marijuana sales are legal in Colorado, the burgeoning edible pot industry has raised some safety concerns.
In April, a Denver teen plunged off a balcony after eating six times the recommended amount of a marijuana brownie. And another man was accused of killing his wife in a hallucinatory episode after eating marijuana candy and rolling a joint, according to CBS News.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s own encounter with a caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar prompted her to argue in her column for greater regulation of the edibles industry.
It appears that Tincture Belle’s Web site and Facebook page are down. But according to the Associated Press, the products can be found in Colorado’s pot shops and medical marijuana dispensaries.
According to Tincture Belle, their pot products are gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free, GMO-free and peanut-free — although they do come with a hint of imitation.
(Thanks to Abby Philip for original post in Washington Post)
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MAUREEN DOWD ATE TOO MUCH WEED – BUT WE CAN STILL LEARN FROM HER STUPIDITY
(Courtesy of the Washington Post)If there is one thing you can say about New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, it is that she knows her brand. Even when she has a bad high in Colorado and uses it as the peg for a column on the messy process of marijuana legalization, she does not lose sight of her Dowdisms. Dowd may have lost her mind via mis-dosage, but in writing about it, she stays on message by describing “my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand,” blaming a girlish affinity for chocolate for her misfortune and confessing her stoned fascination with the green corduroy jeans she was wearing at the time.
But while it is easy to make fun of Dowd’s bad experience with edibles, when it comes to marijuana, there is a good point tangled up in her column. A majority of Americans may favor legalizing marijuana. But that does not mean that that everyone knows how to consume it in ways that are pleasurable and safe for them, or that avoid unpleasant side effects.
Most Americans learn to drink by a process of trial and error, conducted through well-established rituals and with social support. If marijuana is to be consumed in similar ways, a lot of new consumers will have to learn how to toke.
Take Dowd’s experience. She got much higher than she wanted to because she made the not-unreasonable assumption that a candy bar was a single serving, eating the whole thing in one go. “A medical consultant at an edibles plant where I was conducting an interview mentioned that candy bars like that are supposed to be cut into 16 pieces for novices,” Dowd explains that she finds out later. “That recommendation hadn’t been on the label.”
It is one thing for experienced consumers to scoff at Dowd’s lack of knowledge. But she is not going to be alone, and asking for labeling or instructions is not unreasonable. Similarly, new marijuana consumers may look to analogous delivery mechanisms and social rituals when they are smoking joints for the first time, and expect that they ought to treat joints exactly like cigarettes
When new marijuana consumers venture beyond products that look similar to ones they already know, they will have to figure out the answers to a number of questions.
New drinkers may know intellectually that beer, wine and liquor have different amounts of alcohol by volume. But they still have to figure out what they are comfortable drinking, and then determine the amounts they can drink and the rates at which they can drink it. The difference between passing out from keg stands and enjoying High West bourbon neat is a matter of education and socialization.
Smokers and eaters of edibles will have to learn the same things with different strains of and delivery systems for pot. How many hits can they take or brownies can they eat, depending on the bud or the clarified butter in question? How full should they pack the bowl of a pipe or the oven of a vaporizer? If their tolerance is higher than a single square of Dowd’s chocolate bar, how many is optimal? What is the difference in dosage between a nice vibe at a party and hiding in a corner to avoid displaying your incoherence and anxiety?
Americans long ago decided that tee-totaling isn’t the only alternative to being a sot. If the country is to determine that marijuana ought to be legal for recreational as well as medical use, we will need to find a model for marijuana consumption that differs from the motivation-sapped stoner or the deadly violence sometimes committed under the influence.
We figured out a way to regulate alcohol rather than banning it. And we developed a vision for classy, controlled alcohol consumption, even if we occasionally tweak that model in response to dismaying social developments like binge drinking. For Maureen Dowd’s dignity, and the rest of our sakes, we should do the same for marijuana.
(Thanks to reporter Alyssa Rosenberg and the Washington Post for contributing this story)
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Here’s the Weed Law In Every Damn Legal State
Alaska
Law: Measure 2 (52.15%)
Year Passed: 2014
Date Implemented: February 24th, 2015
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Marijuana Control Board
Tax Structure: $50 per ounce on all marijuana sold by wholesale cultivation facilities, additional local taxes expected
Recreational Outlets: No, expected to open Spring 2016
Possession Limit: 1 oz, and all marijuana from a grow, at the location of that grow
Home Cultivation: 6 plants, with only 3 in flowering stage at a time
Transport: 1 oz.Colorado
Law: Amendment 64 (55.3%)
Year Passed: 2012
Date Implemented: January 1st, 2014
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Department of Revenue, Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED)
Tax Structure: 15% on grower, 10% special sales tax, 2.9% standard sales tax, additional local taxes may apply
Recreational Retail Outlets: Yes
Possession Limit: 1 oz, non-residents of Colorado 0.25 oz
Home Cultivation: 6 plants, with only 3 in flowering stage at a time
Transport: 1 oz, open container law appliesOregon
Law: Measure 91 (56.1%)
Year Passed: 2014
Date Implemented: July 1st, 2015
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Oregon Liquor Control Commission
Tax Structure: 17% sales tax
Recreational Retail Outlets: MMJ dispensaries to begin selling recreational October 2015 via Senate Bill 460. Possession Limit: 8 oz at home, 1 oz outside, 1 lb solid edibles, 72 oz liquid, 1 oz extract (concentrates)
Home Cultivation: 4 plants
Transport: 1 oz within state lines, Non-flowering plantsWashington
Law: Initiative 502 (55.7%)
Year Passed: 2012
Date Implemented: July 8th, 2014
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Washington State Liquor Control Board
Tax Structure: 25% at all stages, grower, processer, retailer and customer, plus normal sales taxes
Recreational Retail Outlets: Yes
Possession Limit: 1 oz marijuana, 16 oz of marijuana-infused products in edible form, and 72 oz of marijuana products in liquid form
Home Cultivation: No
Transport: 1 ozWashington D.C. (formally District of Columbia)
Law: Initiative 71 (64.8%)
Year Passed: 2014
Date Implemented: February 26, 2015
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: None
Tax Structure: None, retail & sale is still illegal
Recreational Retail Outlets: No
Possession Limit: 2 oz
Home Cultivation: 6 plants, with only 3 in flowering stage at a time
Transport: 2 oz
Alaska
Law: Measure 2 (52.15%)
Year Passed: 2014
Date Implemented: February 24th, 2015
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Marijuana Control Board
Tax Structure: $50 per ounce on all marijuana sold by wholesale cultivation facilities, additional local taxes expected
Recreational Outlets: No, expected to open Spring 2016
Possession Limit: 1 oz, and all marijuana from a grow, at the location of that grow
Home Cultivation: 6 plants, with only 3 in flowering stage at a time
Transport: 1 oz.Colorado
Law: Amendment 64 (55.3%)
Year Passed: 2012
Date Implemented: January 1st, 2014
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Department of Revenue, Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED)
Tax Structure: 15% on grower, 10% special sales tax, 2.9% standard sales tax, additional local taxes may apply
Recreational Retail Outlets: Yes
Possession Limit: 1 oz, non-residents of Colorado 0.25 oz
Home Cultivation: 6 plants, with only 3 in flowering stage at a time
Transport: 1 oz, open container law appliesOregon
Law: Measure 91 (56.1%)
Year Passed: 2014
Date Implemented: July 1st, 2015
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Oregon Liquor Control Commission
Tax Structure: 17% sales tax
Recreational Retail Outlets: No; Still illegal to buy or sell. Outlets expected 2016 – MMJ dispensaries may begin selling recreational October 2015 if Senate Bill 460 is signed into law.
Possession Limit: 8 oz at home, 1 oz outside, 1 lb solid edibles, 72 oz liquid, 1 oz extract (concentrates)
Home Cultivation: 4 plants
Transport: 1 oz within state lines, Non-flowering plantsWashington
Law: Initiative 502 (55.7%)
Year Passed: 2012
Date Implemented: July 8th, 2014
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: Washington State Liquor Control Board
Tax Structure: 25% at all stages, grower, processer, retailer and customer, plus normal sales taxes
Recreational Retail Outlets: Yes
Possession Limit: 1 oz marijuana, 16 oz of marijuana-infused products in edible form, and 72 oz of marijuana products in liquid form
Home Cultivation: No
Transport: 1 ozWashington D.C. (formally District of Columbia)
Law: Initiative 71 (64.8%)
Year Passed: 2014
Date Implemented: February 26, 2015
Age Requirement: 21
Administrative Agency: None
Tax Structure: None, retail & sale is still illegal
Recreational Retail Outlets: No
Possession Limit: 2 oz
Home Cultivation: 6 plants, with only 3 in flowering stage at a time
Transport: 2 ozThanks to Smoker’s Guide for their in-depth research.
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THOUSANDS MARCH FOR LEGAL POT IN CHILE: ARE WE STARTING A REVOLUTION?
The fight to legalize weed is being conducted all over the world. Last week, 8,000 people took to Santiago’s streets to support legalization of the consumption and cultivation of marijuana, currently classed as a “class-A”hard drug in Chile. They were peaceful, boisterous, and had banners than would make soccer fans envious. Most upsetting to the great citizens of Chili? Their neighbor, Uruguay, has already given pot the green light and is having a really good time….
