Marijuana Suppositories, Other Pot Products May Be Banned Amid New Regulations

By Rick Sallinger

DENVER (CBS4) - Marijuana is being sold in many forms in Colorado, and regulators are trying to catch up with it.

If you walk into a dispensary to buy pot you are going to find some items that might surprise you.

How about marijuana-laced suppositories.

"So this is to get high?" CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked Dylan Osborn, the manager of Starbuds on Brighton Boulevard.

"Yes, to get high and pain relief," he said.

Regulating marijuana sales is not just about pot used for smoking. Edibles require new scrutiny and rule making.

In a conference room at the Marijuana Enforcement Division of the Department of Revenue, representatives from the marijuana industry met with state officials and others to determine how to deal with items like those suppositories.

The head of the Department of Revenue, Michael Hartman, says the current draft of rules would ban such items.

"The way that the product is absorbed into the body poses a heightened risk for infection," he told CBS4.

The distinctions may be hard for marijuana buyers to discern. For example a marijuana inhaler used through the mouth is okay under the proposed changes, but one that inhales through the nose is not allowed.

Rachel O'Bryan with the group Smart Colorado wants strict regulation.

"To us, medicine does not belong on recreational market. We feel these products need to come off the recreational adult use market whose main intent is to get high," she said.

While this meeting was for "stakeholders," there will soon be a meeting for the public to offer testimony. A decision will come from the head of the Department of Revenue later this year.

Kristi Kelly, the head of the Marijuana Industry group, says they want items already in the stores to remain in the stores to help both medical and recreational cannabis users.

CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.