With 10 U.S. states having fully legalized marijuana, and the majority of the country now working with either medicinal legalization or decriminalization, the long-maligned substance is slowly becoming a part of everyday life.
However, such a substantial cultural shift was bound to to result in some new problems. For instance, purveyors of THC products now have to straddle a line between appealing to consumers and making sure they’re not appealing to the wrong consumers. When edibles can be enjoyed in the form of chocolate bars, hard candies, and just about every other sweet treat you can dream up, it’s the responsibility of distributors to ensure that kids in particular don’t get the wrong idea. Unlike Wu-Tang, weed is not for the children.
Fox 35 reports that in Florida, where medical marijuana is legal but kid-friendly packaging is decidedly not, detectives seized a cachet of “Stoney Patch” treats before they made it to market. Yes, they are exactly what you think they are:
Today, The Takeout learned that turning Sour Patch Kids into cyclopes is terrifying, and we’re glad to share that knowledge with you in turn. Anyway, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement about the bust, which claimed $33,600 in merchandise from the prospective sellers. The post notes that in Florida, all marijuana products must be clearly labeled as such, without any kind of youth-friendly branding.
Granted, the issue isn’t going to go away anytime soon; a quick stroll through any dispensary in a legal state will avail you of just how many items like this are already in production around the country. That said, there are a fair number of real hazards involved in small children getting their hands on products like these, so it’s worth staying vigilant. Our crack suggestion: edibles in the style of things that children hate. Who wouldn’t enjoy some THC Brussels sprouts?
Hopefully, legal marijuana figures out exactly where that fine line is between appealing to customers while not appealing to kids. Hey, remember the days when we’d just hard-sell cigarettes to kids?