It’s occurred to me that maybe this is all about the demise of smoking skills. It used to be that even those of us who did not smoke cigarettes knew how to do it. Learning  to smoke was just one of those necessary social skills you picked up in about the sixth grade, even if you had no intention of making it a habit. It is why Bill Clinton made us all laugh when he said he’d tried marijuana, but did not inhale. But with the historic drop in cigarette smoking — from about half the population after World War II to less than 18 percent today — it is totally believable that someone does not know how to inhale. It’s a learned skill that’s no longer being encouraged or even taught. And it may explain why there’s been such a boom in the popularity of foods infused with marijuana in Colorado — almost half of the legal pot sales being rung up are not for something you smoke, but for something you eat. Many people don’t know how to smoke anymore, and that’s a good thing, The lack of smoking skills is likely a contributing factor to the popularity of edible marijuana, which  accounts for 47.5 percent of Colorado’s newly legal pot sales. The state’s powerful Marijuana Industry Group — think of that one as the chamber of commerce for recreational pot — says Colorado’s existing strong medical marijuana sales dating back to 2009 are also driving consumer choices. In a few days, Colorado will become the first state in modern history to complete an entire year’s worth of legal marijuana sales. It’s been an experience unprecedented since Prohibition ended. It’s not all coming out as predicted — the state cut its estimate for total marijuana tax collections by about $20 million. But, as an economic development tool, legal marijuana is hitting its mark, and that high percentage of edibles is the main driver. About 90 new or fairly new food manufacturing companies, mostly based in Denver, are turning out around 300 edible marijuana products. Marijuana is infused in foods by turning it into hash oil concentrate and mixing it with other more typical ingredients. It’s a creative industry that’s getting pretty expansive. No one is making marijuana-infused baby food yet, but just about everything else is on the list. Everybody expects candy, cookies, cakes, brownies and snacks, but how about sauces for pizza or that next order of take-out wings? Thirsty? How about some marijuana-infused root beer or maybe a cappuccino? Or maybe some grape, cherry, lemonade, or fruit punch in powdered form to take camping? The recipe combinations are only limited by imagination. And there are no limits or testing on potency either. It’s not only buyer beware on strength, but there’s also been no testing for contaminants, e.g., pathogens, pesticides, molds, etc. It’s left some of these infused products with potencies greater than advertised, making over-dosing possible, and some (consumer fraud?) weaker. “It’s like buying a bottle of whisky and ending up with a wine cooler,” a Denver TV station said after doing independent testing with the newspaper USA Today. This leaves Colorado with some questions at the end of year one. What about the children? And, where’s the state and local health departments? With so many infused marijuana products and with such iffy doses, these are the problems being dumped into the legislative hopper next month. An industry-dominated stakeholder’s group could not come to agreement on how the 89 edible manufacturers could mark their products in a uniform manner so everyone would know they are not for children, or how they might achieve more uniform results. As suppliers to 292 retail marijuana stores in the state, accounting for almost half of the revenue coming in, the industry fears messing with the edible manufacturers. State and local health departments were cut out of their normal food safety roles by the voter initiative that placed all regulatory power over marijuana with the state Department of Revenue. It’s a joke to have the same regulatory agency that is promoting — you might even say marketing — marijuana to also be charged with the safety of its food products. And the pot growers pay these “all-purpose” state regulators via fees. Colorado’s health regulators have been relegated to being just another group of stakeholders when the Department of Revenue decides to invite them to the party. If there are any bright lights in the Colorado Legislature, they will start by correcting that little situation. Child-proofing the edibles will be easy after that one.