Marijuana edibles are under assault in Colorado from the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment, which suggested ahead of a Monday meeting that many of them be taken off the shelves.

The department asked a working group impaneled to consider labeling rules for commercial marijuana-infused products to go a step further and endorse a broad ban that would allow for sale only hard candies, lozenges and tinctures – laced liquid that can be added to food or drinks.

Shops would be barred from selling pot-laced brownies, cookies, chocolate bars, sodas and a variety of common and novelty items.

Officials appeared to backtrack on this recommendation during a Monday meeting, before the health department issued a statement appearing to reaffirm its original position while noting the proposal did not take into account the voter-approved constitutional amendment that legalized marijuana.

"The recommendation from [the department] is just that, a recommendation to a working group as part of the deliberative process,” health department Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer Larry Wolk said in the statement. “We fully expect it will be debated and edited through open, frequent, frank and respectful communication between stakeholders of all stripes at all levels.”

Wolk said the recommendation was made without input or approval from Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

“Considering only the public health perspective … edibles pose a definite risk to children, and that's why we recommended limiting marijuana-infused products to tinctures and lozenges,” Wolk said. “[The recommendation] does not account for the dynamics of the black market or the guidelines set forward by Amendment 64."

These overlooked considerations were front and center during the working group meeting Monday.

"We do not want to drive these products into the black market, that is not the intent,” said Jess Lawrence, a health department representative, according to Associated Press reporter Kristen Wyatt, who first reported the recommendation. A state legislator told group members the idea may be unconstitutional.

A state law signed in May by Hickenlooper established the working group to consider ways to ensure edible products are "clearly identifiable, when practicable," following incidents of accidental consumption.

The working group – comprised of public health, government and marijuana industry stakeholders – is advising the Colorado Department of Revenue, which oversees marijuana regulation. That department must provide a progress report to state legislators before February and enact new rules by January 2016.

The health department recommendation predicted opposition from the state’s marijuana industry, but reasoned pot businesses could see a ban on their products as an opportunity. “All edible products being produced could also be produced as a traditional food product (without marijuana) and marketed to the general public and not just in Colorado,” the written proposal said.

Colorado's first recreational marijuana stores opened in January, more than a year after residents approved Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana under state law, in November 2012.

Attorney Christian Sederberg, a member of Colorado’s Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force, which helped craft initial marijuana regulations, says the health department proposal probably would be tossed by state courts in the unlikely event it’s adopted by the revenue department.

Editorial Cartoons on Marijuana View All 15 Images

Sederberg, a legalization supporter, tells U.S. News a sweeping product ban is impermissible under both the state constitution and the law that established the edible-rules working group.

Sederberg points to a section of the constitutional amendment forbidding regulation that makes the operation of marijuana businesses "unreasonably impractical," along with the edible law's "when practicable" clause, which he says was specifically included to limit regulatory overreach.

"Unfortunately I think some of the people [on the working group] do not understand what the law said," he says.

Sederberg favors new labeling rules, but says product bans would spawn a black market and associated problems that legalization was intended to eliminate.

"To the extent there's a demand for these products, all a ban would do is ensure they are not sold with the appropriate labeling, packaging and testing for health and safety issues," he says. "In general, based upon the fact that there is demand, it would be an overreach in terms of the policy goals."

The group Smart Colorado, which lobbies for tougher restrictions on marijuana, cheered the health department recommendation on Monday.

“We applaud the [health department’s] initiative and trust that the suggestions of our state’s public health experts will be seriously considered and pursued,” said Diane Carlson, a founding member of the group.

Mark Salley, a spokesman for the health and environment department, declined to elaborate on the department’s current position.

“We have had too many interview requests to grant, so we are relying on the statement we sent out late yesterday,” Salley said in a Tuesday email.