Candy that looks like marijuana causes uproar
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This is one lollipop that parents probably don’t want their kids picking up while trick-or-treating this Halloween.
A Pennsylvania-based candy maker is under fire for churning out suckers shaped like marijuana leaves. The sweets come wrapped in packaging that encourages legalization and sports pot humor such as ‘Hey man, pass the bag’ and ‘Providing you with candy that meets our HIGH STANDARDS.’
‘Shame on you if this is the way you make money,’ Buffalo City Councilman Darius G. Pridgen said during a recent council meeting where he blasted manufacturer Kalan Gifts & Novelties of Lansdowne, Pa. ‘This is outrageous.’
Pridgen said the candy trivializes drug use, and is especially offensive in areas where drugs are a persistent problem. ‘I think that somehow we gotta rein this in.... It definitely shouldn’t happen in areas where people are already struggling to keep their kids off of drugs, keep drugs from being in the forefront of our communities.’
He said he would do whatever he could to block the sale of such sweets, and urged residents to contact their City Council representatives if they see the candy on shelves. He said that if he cannot legally stop its sale, he’ll resort to other measures: ‘I’ll do as much as I can to embarrass that store owner.’
For its part, company President Andrew Kalan said the candies are on sale in about 1,000 stories nationwide, and he seemed surprised at the uproar.
He issued the following statement Monday: ‘At Kalan, we spot trends in society and make products that satisfy the demands of our customers. We developed the marijuana-shaped candy as a response to the growing movement among adults in the U.S. towards legalization. As a company, we do not take political sides; our goal is merely to capitalize on what we see in the marketplace.’
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--Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch
