Outliers: Ban on medical marijuana sweets leaves bad taste

Forget the hash brownies.

That's what the Oregon Health Authority ruled recently in announcing regulations for items allowed at the state's medical marijuana dispensaries, which began opening last week.

Although medical marijuana will be available at the dispensaries, the agency wants to ban sweets containing the drug because they could be attractive to young people.

But dispensary advocates said patients who take the drug orally need the sweetened pot products. They say a little sugar helps the bitter medicine go down.

“It just stinks,” Gary Stevenson of Portland told the Associated Press.

Stevenson, who has cancer, said he prefers to take the marijuana in food because it's more potent and longer-lasting. As a member of the group Oreginfused Kitchen, he also makes and distributes the types of pot-infused foods that would be banned at dispensaries.

He said he doesn't want to go underground. “I'm striving for legitimacy,” Stevenson said.

The regulations are designed to implement bill SB 1531, which the Legislature passed this month and Gov. John Kitzhaber signed into law March 19.

Scott Grenfell, general manager of an already existing dispensary, called “stunning” the proposed rule that would ban from dispensaries all marijuana-infused products in the form of “cake-like products, cookies, candy, or gum, or that otherwise may be attractive to minors because of its shape, color, or taste.”