From dawn until midnight, Andi Bixel churns out ice cream. She's made so much ice cream that the machine has started to act up. She bought another this week so she can keep going without a break.

You won't find Bixel's treats, made with local ingredients like lavender and honey, in Portland's famous ice cream parlors or trendy grocery stores. Her cold confections are infused with marijuana.

Bixel's startup, Drip Ice Cream, is one of dozens jockeying for shelf space and new consumers as Oregon continues the gradual rollout of its recreational marijuana program.

Starting Thursday, anyone 21 and older can buy marijuana-infused edibles and extracts at medical marijuana dispensaries selling to the recreational market. It's the latest milestone in Oregon's effort to create a regulated marketplace for one of the state's most popular commodities.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is in the process of licensing producers and expects to green-light stand-alone recreational shops later this year. Until then, medical marijuana dispensaries can sell a limited amount of marijuana flowers, seed and plants - and now marijuana-infused edibles, extracts and non-psychoactive topical products, like balms and lotions - to the general public.

The rules around the potency of edibles are complicated. The state intends to cap individual edible products at 5 milligrams of THC apiece -- half of what's allowed in Colorado and Washington. A package of marijuana-infused edibles, say a chocolate bar or cookies, may contain no more than 50 milligrams total.

But those rules don't apply to this early sales program. Stores can sell edibles with up to 15 milligrams of THC - triple the serving-size limit that will come this fall.

The Oregon Health Authority, which oversees medical marijuana dispensaries, reminded the public to keep marijuana products away from children and warned that pot can make kids sick.

And it's not just kids that the health authority worries about. Public health officials this week reminded adults to take it easy when eating edibles. People should start with less than 15 milligrams and "wait at least 90 minutes and up to four hours before having more," the agency said in a statement this week.

While eager to expand their brands beyond the medical market -- which some dispensary owners say has sharply declined since recreational sales began last year - edible makers worry consumers new to their products will eat too much and end up with a lousy experience that's marked by paranoia, anxiety and other miserable symptoms related to over-ingesting marijuana.

(See related: Oregon marijuana edibles makers launch public campaign: 'Try 5')

"They say, drink responsibly," said William Simpson, CEO of Chalice Farms, a Portland-based marijuana grower, processor and retailer. "Eat responsibly - that should be the slogan for edibles. Start slow and take your time. Eat a little and wait a long time."

His message is similar for people interested in consuming extracts.

"The first sip of alcohol you took, nobody told you to plug half the bottle," he said. "Use sparingly, see what effect you get and go from there."

Budtenders at Simpson's four stores plan to hand out informational cards about edibles with every purchase. His company's commercial kitchen near Portland International Airport is turning out 500 packages of truffles, chocolates and gummy candies a day.

He hopes to open each of his stores Thursday with about 1,200 packages of edibles on the shelves.

He expects a rush as curious customers flock to dispensaries to try out products that have been off-limits until now. Oregonians who have been traveling to border stores in Washington are likely to now shop closer to home, he said.

"The increase in sales could be very large," he said. "All that business that was going across state lines will now stay in our own backyards."

In Colorado and Washington, both home to regulated marijuana markets, edibles typically make up about 10 percent of marijuana sales, according to BDS Analytics, a Colorado-based firm that tracks cannabis sales and market data.

As for Bixel, it's been tricky to prepare for the new market and the state's rules around packaging and labeling.

The 25-year-old figures she's worked 18-hour days for the past two weeks, hoping to produce 1,500 containers of ice cream that will be delivered to a dozen dispensaries by Thursday.

It's not been a smooth road, she said. Adapting her packaging to evolving state rules is spendy. Lab testing, too, remains inconsistent. She recently had three samples tested by three labs only to get wildly different potency results. The state has only begun to license marijuana testing labs, which have been dogged by concerned about quality and consistency.

"Nobody is coming in to check to make sure things are what they say they are," she said.

Still, Bixel, whose ice cream has been available on the medical marijuana market, said she's excited by the prospect of a new customer base. Ice cream, she said, represents a novelty in a market crowded with marijuana brownies and candies. Each 4-ounce package contains 15 milligrams of THC.

Packages are marked with 5-milligram servings so consumers can gauge how much to eat. Her advice to consumers: Exercise willpower and don't gobble the whole container in one sitting.

"We are really trying to educate as much as we can around the fact that less is more," she said. "Edibles are more fun if you have less."

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184; @noellecrombie