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Company Hopes To Provide Affordable Child-Proof Pot Packaging

DENVER (CBS4) - Marijuana industry groups say the challenge pot shops and dispensaries are running into is finding true child-resistant packaging at an affordable cost.

"This is essentially a pill bottle and it's opaque," Chris Warden with Packaging Film Sales said. "This is a product we would like to able to supply."

Packaging Film Sales has been in the container game for a long but is facing new challenges with their marijuana clients. Warden says the child-resistant packaging required for pot and edible products isn't easy to find and more of a moving target.

"Everyone has a different idea of sort of what is compliant and what isn't," Warden said. "People think they are and they're not."

The Marijuana Enforcement Division says to be "child resistant" the packaging must meet the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard, a stamp of approval, which means it's tested and only five out of 20 children can open it. It also has to be opaque.

For example a pharmaceutical pill bottle or a bag requiring both a pinching and zipping mechanism are approved.

Rob Corry, a marijuana attorney, says supply and demand has his clients struggling to find the costly bags.

"It's a very expensive plastic bag. It's 10 times higher than what a plastic bag ought to be just because of the closure," Corry said.

"Anywhere from a $1.50 per bag to $5 per bag," Warden said.

That's why Packaging Film Sales is now working to design their own bags and bottles, get the ASTM approval, and then mass produce to keep the cost down for pot shops.

"We'd like to be able provide it locally and also maybe offer some green options," Warden said.

Many industry people say with the cost of the bags being so high it will likely be passed on to the consumer and drive up the cost of pot.

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