Marijuana Equivalency and You
This week we ran a Twitter poll asking “What is your favorite way to consume cannabis?” It was no surprise to us that concentrates led the pack. The Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) in Colorado has also taken the increase in concentrates into consideration. When the original legislation for legalization and regulation of recreational marijuana was drafted there were no specific restrictions for concentrates and edibles. With the increasing popularity of these alternative ways of consumption an update to the legislation is necessary. Mark your calendars for October 1, 2016 when the marijuana equivalency update goes into full effect.
What Does This Mean?
In August, the MED put out a 45-page document explaining their results in detail. We read it all so you don’t have to. They explain that the “study provides scientific and data driven evidence in order to understand these equivalencies. The results provide comparisons between marijuana flower, concentrates and infused products specifically for Colorado’s marijuana market.”
The document goes on to explain that equivalency is broken up into three sections: production, dosing, and market price. On the production side “infused edibles or concentrates are traced back into their corresponding weight of flower or trim inputs. This enables the conversion from non-flower products into a common flower-based denominator…” For the dosing component pharmacology was used “to develop a dose-equivalent measure across product types.” The final piece to the equivalency puzzle “uses Colorado potency and market data to convert marijuana retail prices into their unit-THC equivalents.”
Why This Matters To You
Everything you’ve purchased, prior to this change at the beginning of October, was based on total weight. When this change goes into effect, 3.5g of flower = 1g of concentrates = 100mg of edibles.
Here are a few combinations of equivalency in action to help understand:
- 28g of marijuana flower
- 14g of flower and 4g of concentrates
- 14g of flower, 2g of concentrates, and 200mg of edibles
