Oregon State Sen. Lisa Reynolds (D-Portland/Washington County) has announced plans to reintroduce her failed 2026 legislation next year that would have reduced the amount of THC in cannabis edibles. While portions of what she proposes are ideas worthy of support, it has elements of personal bias and drug war hysteria.
Per the Oregon Capital Chronicle, Reynolds “…is seeking to improve cannabis prevention education in schools, cap individual edibles at 10 milligrams of THC and require manufacturers provide more warning labels on their products.”
No one is against improving cannabis prevention in our schools. Children should not use cannabis products, and truthful, science-based arguments supporting this should be implemented. (The most advanced BS detector ever is a child.) But prior efforts such as the DARE , or Drug Addiction Resistance Education, were failures due in part to exaggerated claims and lies about drugs, especially cannabis.
The additional warning labels would potentially warn of cannabis use, “…contributing to worse mental health outcomes.” And new research has estimated that “…teens using cannabis are at 11 times higher risk of developing a psychotic disorder compared to teens not using cannabis.”
If labels help that from happening, great. We already warn pregnant women not to use cannabis, so let’s do this, too.
The 10 mg limit is trickier. The current limit of THC per package of any type of edible is 100 mg, with contents scored or divided into 10 individual servings of 10 mg each. (While not considered edibles, some THC tinctures and syrups can have up to 1000 mg per package, and are not segmented into 10 mg serving portions. They are FAFO in a liquid form.)
That wasn’t always the case. In April of 2022, the THC limit per package of edibles was 50 mg, but the industry successfully lobbied for a change to 100 mg, then the limits in both Washington and Colorado.
Reynolds cites a change in the law in Washington state, which according to Dr. Julia Dilley, a Multnomah County epidemiologist, resulted in “75% fewer hospitalizations and half as many poisonings reported to poison centers.” As the Chronicle writes …” In 2023, children 5 and younger made up one-third of all cannabis-related cases reported to the Oregon Poison Center.”
(And who got their edibles for an irresponsible and careless adult, not a dispensary.)
The cannabis industry defeated the prior incarnation of the bill arguing it would “…create more plastic waste having to wrap each edible individually and that businesses wouldn’t have the money to buy machinery used to wrap individual edibles. Additionally, lobbyists said the bill would cost the state millions in tax revenue because it would eliminate popular marijuana products.”
No argument on packaging waste and the expenses imposed upon cannabis businesses, already struggling with arguably overly strict regulations and 280e, but there are some questions about the tax revenue reduction.
About that bias: Reynolds is not a proponent for non-medical cannabis use. She supported SCR202 earlier this year, which “Whereas psychoactive drugs such as marijuana, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine present serious risks to those who use them and can lead to…permanent IQ loss..and even to death“…urge(s) Oregonians to avoid the use of psychoactive drugs from any source except as needed for legitimate medical purposes.”
You lost me at equating cannabis with meth, and I’m not alone in feeling that advocating for more government control over bodily autonomy by a government agency is not…great.
Reynolds also has said that, “…she believes her brother’s habitual marijuana use in the ’70s contributed to his severe mental health problems as an adult and his regular admission into psychiatric hospitals.” Which is sad and deserves our compassion, but is simply not the outcome for the vast majority of cannabis users. That isn’t science, it’s family trauma.
A suitable outcome for everyone could involve state cannabis tax credits to pay for businesses to invest in new required packaging equipment, modifying edible taxes so consumers aren’t taking a hit on having to now buy 10 times as many packages. And use cannabis tax revenue to fund a “Secure Your Stash Safe” giveaway and awareness campaign, because adults securing their edibles like a loaded weapon hasn’t caught on yet.
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