Marijuana-Themed Candy Leaves Bitter Taste

[jayr]

Funny how they still sell Popeye's "Candy" Sticks......

http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2005/marijuana-themed-candy-leaves.html

Community leaders in North Carolina and other parts of the country are raising an outcry against candy that tastes like marijuana, including Chronic Candy and Pot Suckers, WNBC-17 in Raleigh, N.C., reported May 10.

Chronic Candy is sold by the ounce or "nickel bag," using the tagline, "Every lick is like taking a hit." Pot Suckers are marijuana-flavored lollipops; flavored gum drops and gummi bears also are available.

"To me, it's aggravating to be in law enforcement and try and keep kids off drugs," Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said. "And we didn't even know about it. To see drugs are in this candy ... it's disgusting."

Actually, even candy flavored with hemp contains no THC, which makes it perfectly legal. But parents and police expressed concern about the message the candy sends to kids, especially since there is no age limit on who can purchase the products.

Spencer Gifts alone has sold more than 90,000 Pot Suckers, making it one of the chain's biggest sellers. "We target people 18 to 24, and all the merchandise is for them," a company spokesperson said. "We can't control who comes out. We ask them to use their best judgment when selling merchandise. We don't do any marketing that we have this."

Steven Trachtenberg, president of ICUP Inc., the makers of Pot Suckers, is unapologetic about his product and others that are on the way. "The candy is intended for stoners," Trachtenberg said. "There is a very large percentage of people in this country who smoke pot either openly or discretely in their homes, and it's intended for them."

However, at least one lawmaker in New York has introduced legislation seeking to ban hemp-flavored candy.

[mattm]

funny how they still sell cigarettes.

[djmelbatoast]

Oh yeah, I'm going to go have one.

[SaggyBalls]

get a case and give them out with all of your radio show giveaways DJMT

[Big Wooly Mammoth]

I think that these are pretty stupid. If they want to sell them to "stoners" sell them in head shops, or places where there are no kids around. And Popeye candy sticks are exactly that - candy sticks. Unless you grew up with them being sold as cigarettes you wouldn't know about that inference. And they don't paint the tips red anymore. To my kids they are just sticks of candy.

[jayr]

Yeah, maybe.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070618091217.htm

Candy Cigarettes May Encourage Future Smoking

ScienceDaily (Jun. 19, 2007) —

New research suggests that playing with candy cigarettes may favorably set the minds of some children towards becoming future cigarette smokers. The study, reported in the July issue of Preventive Medicine, shows that in a nationally representative sample of 25,887 US adults, the percentages who had never consumed candy cigarettes were 12% in current and former smokers vs. 22% in never smokers, and the corresponding percentages of adults who had regularly (often or very often) consumed candy cigarettes were 22% in current and former smokers vs. 14% in never smokers.

Candy cigarettes are made of candy or gum, shaped into cylindrical sticks and sold in rectangular boxes roughly the size of cigarette packs. In the US they are typically displayed next to the bubble gum and the trading cards commonly sold in supermarkets and convenience stores. Make-believe cigarette smoking may be considered illicit and mature by some children, but research suggests that playing with these edible "toys" cannot be considered as a benign parody of cigarette smoking.

This new research is built on past research, such as focus groups in the US with 4 to 11 year-old children and a survey of 7th graders which indicated that playing with candy cigarettes may actually desensitize children to the harm of real smoking.

"Candy and gum look-alike products allow children to respond to tobacco marketing and advertising long before they are old enough to smoke a cigarette," comments Dr. Klein, the corresponding author. "The continued existence of these products helps promote smoking as a culturally or socially acceptable activity." While countries including the UK, Australia, and Canada currently restrict candy cigarette sales, US federal and all but one state legislative efforts at banning candy cigarettes have been unsuccessful (the one exception was later repealed).

Ironically, it appears that the responsibility for restricting candy cigarette sales in the US has been left up to large national retailers such as the Wal-Mart chain, which has a company-wide policy banning the sale of cigarette look-alike products to minors in all 50 states. Candy cigarettes cannot be considered simply as candy.

I don't think that these Hemp-Lolly's are going to be available at Mac's anytime soon...I'd buy one though!

I think whether or not kids make the connection between "Candy Sticks" and cigarettes probably has more to do with if their parents or people around them are smokers or not.

Edited June 10, 2008 by Guest

[ollie]

Pushing the envelope where it doesn't need to be pushed really. But where there's a market to be exploited, it will be.