Lawmakers strive to plug in legal marijuana legislation loopholes

By Staff Writer | Mar 19, 2014 07:13 PM EDT

According to a Fox News report, the state of Colorado has yet to remain lax about regulating marijuana. several new laws signed by Governor John Hickenlooper are aimed to reduce the accessibility and the exposure of legal marijuana to minors.

One of the new laws signed by the Colorado governor requires a standard procedure for packing edible marijuana in the hopes of dissuading minors or kids to try the product or eliminate the accessibility of the product to children. The new legislation now require legal marijuana business sellers to sell marijuana in opaque, childproof packages.

Co-sponsor State Representative Daniel Kagan explained the need to create a standard in packaging marijuana for sale and said, "We identified these problems and we sought to tighten it up, to make sure that marijuana is really kept for adult use and kept away from under-aged persons and especially from toddlers. We do it differently in Colorado. Everybody came together on this."

Aside from the packaging, Colorado now allows pot shops to confiscate fake forms of identification if they believe that the people who are in possession of it are under the legal age. Another measure requires local businesses to submit fingerprints of their employees to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct fingerprint-based criminal record checks.

Pediatric emergency physician Dr Sam Wang at the Children's Hospital based in Aurora lauded about state government efforts to reduce marijuana exposure to children. He said, "As recreational marijuana goes forward, it's obviously going to increase availability and potentially increase unintentional exposures as well."

Co-sponsor Democrat State Senator Linda Newell said that Colorado is not done yet with its regulation. She said, We will probably find these clean-up bills as we go through the years after marijuana, both medical marijuana as well as recreational marijuana, has become a norm in Colorado."

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