Colorado Legislators Will Reinforce Edible Marijuana Laws After Deaths Related to Cannabis

Colorado legislators will attempt to reinforce the laws which rule over the sale of edible products containing marijuana after two recent deaths, possibly related to consumption of these products, have caused alarm.

This week, the House of Representatives unanymously approved a law project which limits the amount of concentrated marijuana that can be sold in edibles, as well as a law initiative which would force producers to mark their products with clear information on correct use, mainly on pastries and candy, reported Reuters.

Worries on the safety of edibles, the sale of which is legal in Colorado, shot up after two deaths took place in Denver.

In March, Levi Thampa Pongi, a student from the Republic of Congo studying at the University of Wyoming, jumped from a hotel balcony after ingesting six times the recommended amount of marijuana cookies.

According to Reuters, Pongi arrived in Colorado during springbreak with friends to try marijuana, recently legalized in the state. The investigation concluded that the store's employee who sold the group of friends the cookies warned them not to eat an entire cookie at once.

However, the young student consumed six times the number of suggested cookies after she initiatilly did not feel the effects of marijuana.

"One of the dangers we've seen with recreational use of marijuana is that users take the recommended dose, wait, and when they don't feel anything, continue to pile on doses. Before they realize it, they've accumulated a large quantity in their systems and the effects can be huge," explained Dr. George Dam Wang, of the Colorado Children Hospital to Fox News.

The measures undertaken by Colorado legislators attempt to protect the public and make sure that edibles are not accidentaly consumed by children.

"The packaging of edibles are marked with captions indicating they contain marijuana, but once they're outside the packaging they are indistinguishable from a brownie or sucker bought in a regular store," explained the Republican Representative for Denver, Frank McNulty, quoted by Reuters.