Scary Stuff

Colorado Parents Freak Out Over the Idea of Pot-Laced Halloween Candy

That's not a Hershey's bar.
That’s not a Hershey’s bar. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Advocacy groups and authorities in Colorado’s brave new world of legal pot are advising parents to be “edible aware” this Halloween and carefully inspect their children’s pillowcases and jack-o’-lantern buckets for what they say are the post-legalization equivalent of razor-blade-stuffed apples: Loads and loads of “suspicious-looking candies that might be infused with marijuana,” of course.

Hospitals suggest looking at “every single piece of candy,” which is a good practice to begin with. Elsewhere, the Denver Police Department joined forces with a local dispensary for a PSA earlier this month that warns “there’s really no way for a child or a parent or even an expert in the field to tell you whether a product is infused or not,” so “it’s best just to toss that stuff into the trash.”

Those weed-infused candies do look a lot like Sour Patch Kids.

For those who are losing sleep over this, there’s even a $15 testing kit that apparently detects any traces of THC. The fear is that companies know edibles modeled to look like real candy sell better — and it’s true some have been such dead ringers that Hershey’s sued and got them pulled — so some hapless kid might get a big dose of some English Skunk completely by accident. Critics say that laws, at least for the time being, don’t crack down hard enough on confusingly colorful or otherwise fun-looking packaging. Still, it all does seem a little paranoid. Who drops $14 on a Buddafinger and gives it to a three-foot-tall Frozen character anyway?

[NYT]

Colorado Parents Freak Out Over the Idea of Pot-Laced Halloween Candy