Who is to blame?

Imagine a friend of yours leaves you a chocolate bar on your table with a little note “Hope this helps”. Imagine you don’t put on your reading glasses and you eat the whole bar. And now imagine the bar has 120 mg of THC in it and you had no idea! You are more stoned than you have ever been in your life and you are starting to panic. 

Twelve hours later you are still stoned but are able to get in touch with the makers of the chocolate bar and you want someone to be held responsible for what happened to you. 

The bar was labeled with a cannabis warning on the front and on the back and with the amount of THC per piece and for the whole bar. 

We were able to give our involuntary customer some advice on how to overcome the high, to stay hydrated, eat food, stay at home, sleep, maybe have some CBD as an antagonist and perhaps most important embrace the situation. Surrender to the experience. You are in for the ride whether by choice or not. You might as well enjoy it. 

But back to the question of who is to blame? Us for not having a bigger sized warning on the wrapper? The friend who meant well but did not say “Hey watch out, this stuff is potent and has THC in it!” Or you, the consumer, for not putting your glasses on and eating something without checking first what you are putting in your mouth? Maybe all of us? 

Packaging regulations for adult use cannabis are very specific. The list of things that need to be on the label is 40 points long. And yet, it would not have prevented this particular incident.