Reefer Madness and the Potsicle

New York Post reported that six people, three from Alabama and two from Connecticut, were arrested at New York City’s Puerto Rican Day Parade for selling so-called “marijuana lollipops.” The report states that the alleged sales staff, working from a green van decorated with pictures of scantily clad women, told undercover cops that the pops and Gummi bear candies they were hawking contained marijuana. However, most manufacturers of pot flavored candy clearly state that while the flavoring ingredient, hemp oil, makes “pot suckers” with names like Purple Haze and Kronic Kandy taste like the real thing, there is no drug in the confection.

The tale will be told in the lab report. In every drug case, the prosecution must submit a lab report to the court where the case is filed which demonstrates that the substance being peddled is indeed a controlled substance. The candies will be subjected to a compound analysis which may or may not show that the active chemical ingredients in marijuana were present. Various officials such as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Pennsylvania state representative Thomas Corrigan have actively sought to outlaw all marijuana flavored candies such as the venerable “Stoner Pop.” Corrigan states, “It is really frightening to develop a taste for marijuana in children through lollipops." Here in the new millennium “reefer madness” has now extended to candies which contain hemp oil. However, no matter how hysterical politicians get, you still need a positive lab report to prosecute a marijuana case in court. CR