NYT’s Maureen Dowd reacts: In quest for fun, risks downplayed

Embattled New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reacted on June 5 to the controversy around her June 3 column, where she wrote about a nightmarish experience with too heavy a dose of legal marijuana-infused edibles in Colorado.

“I wrote in the column that I take responsibility for not knowing enough about what I was doing,” Dowd wrote in a statement. “I was focused more on the fun than the risks. In that sense, I’m probably like many other people descending on Denver.”

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

Opinion: Dowd’s peculiar tale is misleading, writes Denver Post editorial Page Editor Vincent Carroll, who notes Colorado’s edibles labeling requirements

20 compelling reactions to Dowd via Twitter: Dowd pens column on edibles overdose, and the Internet loses its mind

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 says

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

In the column, Dowd wrote about her dreadful experience as she got too stoned in her Denver hotel room: “As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.” The column became the subject of ridicule on the Internet on June 4, which is when The Cannabist spoke with Colorado tour operator Matt Brown, who said he had warned Dowd about the edibles when they spent three-four hours together on her Colorado visit in January. Brown also spoke with Dowd on the telephone a few hours before the column first printed.

“Matt Brown gave me a great tour,” Dowd said in her statement. “There is no mention of edibles in my transcript of our interview, but we were together several hours and no doubt we did chat about it at some point.”

Dose your edibles right: Eight tips about trying marijuana-infused edibles

“Obviously, however, I didn’t come away with the knowledge I acquired the hard way — that more than a small amount of an edible was ill-advised for someone with a low tolerance level and that edibles are ingested differently and reaction times are quite different. I ate approximately a quarter of the candy bar, which was too much for someone like me.”

Dowd closed her statement on a pro-legalization — if pro-cautionary — note.

“I favor legalization,” she said, “but given all the tourists streaming into Colorado, it would be better to err on the side of conservative cautions.”