After Maureen Dowd's column hit The New York Times' website on June 3, the Internet nearly exploded. 20 popular reactions to Dowd's controversial column. (Twitter)

20 reactions: Dowd pens column on edibles overdose, Internet loses mind

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By , The Cannabist Staff

When Maureen Dowd’s column on her edibles overdose in Colorado first appeared on The New York Times’ website on June 3 it became an immediate touchstone in marijuana legalization in 2014.

Read the original column: Dowd’s bad trip was a truly terrifying experience

What was Maureen Dowd was told about edibles before her overdose? Matt Brown of My 420 Tours spent hours with Dowd and warned her about edibles, he said

Follow-up: Maureen Dowd reacts to furor over her column — “I was focused more on the fun than the risks”

The Wiki shuffle: Yes, there is a “Colorado candy bar incident” entry on Dowd’s Wikipedia

Where were you on Jan. 1 when legal recreational sales started in Colorado? Where were you April 2 when Denver Police and coroners first linked a 19-year-old’s accidental death to edible marijuana? Where were you April 20 when the largest 4/20 celebration in the world took over the entire Rocky Mountain state? And where were you when one of The New York Times’ most prominent columnists wrote about overdosing on a marijuana-infused edible in her Colorado hotel room?

National Cannabis Industry Association deputy director Taylor West knows where she was, and how she felt, when she first read Dowd’s most recent writing on Colorado marijuana — a polarizing column about her negative experience with too much marijuana: “It is, to me, the continued refusal of some columnists to actually engage in a thoughtful conversation about marijuana, and it’s more embarrassing to them than it is to the industry,” West said June 4.

Edibles 101: Eight tips for getting right dose with marijuana-infused edibles

West does see a silver lining amid Dowd’s column: “The reaction to it creates more awareness to the general public on the fact that it is stupid to over-consume. It is something we need to have a better sense of.”

Dowd’s controversial column brought forth a flurry of responses on social media. And here are 20 of the most compelling reactions we found on Twitter — some angry, some funny, some sympathetic — and we’ll start with one of West’s initial tweets on the matter:

1. Taylor West is the deputy director for the National Cannabis Industry Association:

2. Judd Legum is the editor of ThinkProgress:

3. Neal Pollack is an author and “Jeopardy” champion:

4. Sara Benincasa is a “comedian, author and Internet hero,” according to BuzzFeed:

5. Rebecca Schoenkopf is the editor of Wonkette:

6. Bret Saunders is the morning show host at Denver radio station KBCO:

7. Mallory Ortberg is a San Francisco-based writer with The Atlantic, Gawker, The Awl and others:

8. Bob Young writes on marijuana for the Seattle Times:

9. Kristen Wyatt writes for the Associated Press out of Denver, often about marijuana policy:

10. Politico, the political journalists, took the easy joke:

11. Eli Stokols is a political reporter for Denver television stations KDVR and KWGN:

12. Pour Me Coffee is a popular Tumblr:

13. Bill Werde is the outspoken editorial director at Billboard:

14. Pete Wells is the restaurant critic at The New York Times — and Dowd’s colleague at the paper:

15. Dominic Holden is the associate editor of The Stranger in Seattle:

16. James Poniewozik is a columnist for Time magazine:

17. Brian Ries is the real-time news editor at Mashable:

18. Patrick LaForge is The New York Times’ editor for news presentation — and Dowd’s colleague:

19. Tim Fernholz is an economics and politics writer at Quartz:

20. David Slade is a finance columnist and metro reporter for The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.: