Legal Weed Has States Improvising Role as Consumers’ Safety Cop

What’s safe in pot? Depends on where you are

The spread of legal marijuana across the US is bringing with it a unique challenge: Absent federal guidelines, states are cobbling together hodgepodge rules that leave users without a uniform safety net.

Take New Jersey, which on April 21 became the latest state with legalized pot. Regulators there are re-examining their own rules on issues as varied as mold limits and batch size for contaminants testing. As with all the 19 states that allow recreational marijuana use for adults, it’s up to local officials to decide what’s best.

This isn’t how the US treats aspirin, lipstick, food, tobacco, carpet, tires — just about everything that’s for sale is subject to uniform health and safety regulations. But marijuana is in odd territory: Federally illegal, yet tried by half the adult population, it’s a fledgling multibillion-dollar market steered by fast-evolving rules.

Attempts at regulation mark a departure from a black market that flourished bureaucracy-free for decades. But with a US retail market projected to hit $43 billion by 2025, according to researcher New Frontier Data, many in the industry are asking for some government intervention. [Read more at Bloomberg]