{"id":2109,"date":"2021-10-31T18:30:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T18:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CAIiEEFTH2GgSv8Inrs_bJG3CEUqFQgEKg0IACoGCAowrqkBMKBFMLGBAg"},"modified":"2021-10-31T18:30:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T18:30:27","slug":"why-are-state-attorneys-general-peddling-the-marijuana-tainted-halloween-candy-fake-news-forbes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=2109","title":{"rendered":"Why Are State Attorneys General Peddling The \u201cMarijuana-Tainted Halloween Candy\u201d Fake News? – Forbes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On the Tuesday before the Halloween weekend, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a troubling consumer alert<\/a> aimed directly at her state\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n

New York legalized adult-use cannabis back in March, but there\u2019s still no regulated commercial market. At least part of this void, as James warned, is being filled by cannabis products \u201cdeceptively designed to look like standard snack foods and candy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an old phenomenon. Whether categorized as \u201cremix culture\u201d or \u201clogo-jacking\u201d or something else, underground markets of all kinds\u2014fashion, food, music\u2014are full of derivative references to mainstream brands. And cannabis culture has demonstrated a particular love<\/a> for sly nods towards familiar branding (or at least until the lawyers get involved<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But James wasn\u2019t worried about copyright infringement. In her release, citing a nationwide increase in visits to poison control centers by children who accidentally (or not) ate their parents\u2019 cannabis edibles\u2014with 2,622 calls nationwide recorded in the first half of 2021\u2014she warned about a menace \u201cextremely dangerous to human health,\u201d including weed that could kill you.<\/p>\n

And James was not alone. Similar warnings were issued by attorneys general in at least five other states. <\/p>\n

Despite the spread of marijuana legalization and acceptance of cannabis as a product acceptable in polite culture, the annual ritual of fearmongering around Halloween appears to be getting worse. And elected officials like attorneys general are making it so.<\/p>\n

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New York Attorney General Letitia James was one of a string of US attorneys general to issue … [+]<\/span> warnings of deceptive cannabis products in the days before Halloween this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/small> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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MORE FOR YOU<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIn light of an increase in accidental overdoses among children nationwide, it is more vital than ever that we do everything we can to curb this crisis and prevent any further harm, or even worse, death,\u201d she said in her statement.<\/p>\n

According to the National Institutes on Drug Abuse<\/a>, science has yet to record a single death attributable solely to cannabis overdose. That would seem to be enough by itself classify James\u2019s consumer warning as a bizarre overreaction, if not irresponsible fear-mongering (\u201cDangerous\u201d? \u201cCrisis\u201d? \u201cDeath\u201d?) with highly questionable timing.<\/p>\n

As columnist Jacob Sullum has reported for years<\/a>, every year in September and October, authorities issue warnings about cannabis-tainted Halloween candy. And every year, not a single verified report of tainted Halloween candy can be found.<\/p>\n

Yet somehow, every year, the ritual repeats itself.<\/a> And marijuana legalization hasn\u2019t stopped this nonsense. Instead, it\u2019s getting worse. <\/p>\n

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Examples of cannabis products packaged with logos and branding similar to mainstream brands.<\/p>\n

Office of Attorney General Letitia James<\/small> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the same day, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost published<\/a> a similar warning. Unlike James, Yost specifically invoked the Halloween fallacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe levels of THC in these fakes could have some real and devastating consequences for children,\u201d Yost said. \u201cParents need to be extra cautious, especially around Halloween, that these copycat products don\u2019t wind up in treat bags.\u201d <\/p>\n

But as Yost\u2019s office had to later admit to reporters who bothered to ask them a basic question, this has never happened.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, James\u2019s and Yost\u2019s counterpart in California, Attorney General Rob Bonta, issued<\/a> a similar warning, dutifully picked up and taken very seriously by the San Francisco Chronicle.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Though Bonta shied away from suggesting weed products could kill you, he did say that cannabis products using mainstream branding are all unregulated, contain THC levels far and above state legal limits, and thus \u201cpresent a risk to public health and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar reports came from other attorneys general all over the United States. Connecticut<\/a>. Illinois<\/a>. Oklahoma<\/a>. Not every instance specifically mentioned Halloween, though Yost and Illinois AG Kwame Raoul both did. (Those that didn\u2019t had to have known that the timing would ensure that they\u2019d be interpreted as such.) <\/p>\n

In every instance, the attorney generals\u2019 warnings were greeted with a torrent of skepticism and mockery from the public as well as the media\u2014or, in the latter case, at least when the media wasn\u2019t parroting their warnings verbatim.<\/p>\n

Because, in every instance, there is no credible evidence that cannabis-tainted Halloween candy is a thing. But in 2021, with the warnings coming from elected attorneys general instead of anti-drug activists or law enforcement for whom low-level drug busts were bread-and-butter, the annual cannabis-and-Halloween hoopla has reached a new nadir.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year this gets worse,\u201d observed Justin Strekal, the political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). <\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear why this bevy of American attorneys general\u2014several of whom are in states where adult-use cannabis is legal\u2014all issued similar warnings this past week, and whether the warnings were coordinated in some way. <\/p>\n

James\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to her office via an online form on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Critics in drug-policy reform circles said that the attorneys generals\u2019 warnings did little aside from hurt their own public images.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter decades of objectively false scare tactics from the government, public officials should focus on building up credibility through respectful and evidence-based communication,\u201d said Shaleen Title,<\/a> a drug-policy attorney and co-founder of the Parabola Center for Law and Policy, a new cannabis-centric think thank. \u201cPerpetuating stale myths about tainted Halloween candy might get some clicks, but it’s not worth your credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is clear is that warnings like this do little aside from perpetuate a hoary and exploded myth, and seem to generate little more than derision from the public.<\/p>\n

And at a time when trust in government institutions is at an historic low, according to polling<\/a>, the annual Halloween-time marijuana reefer madness charade is making that very frightening development needlessly worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the Tuesday before the Halloween weekend, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a troubling consumer alert aimed directly at her state\u2019s parents. New York legalized adult-use cannabis back in March, but there\u2019s still no regulated commercial market. At least part of this void, as James warned, is being filled by cannabis products \u201cdeceptively designed to look like standard snack foods and candy.\u201d This is an old phenomenon. Whether categorized as \u201cremix culture\u201d or \u201clogo-jacking\u201d or something else, underground markets of all kinds\u2014fashion, food, music\u2014are full of derivative references to mainstream brands. And cannabis culture has demonstrated a particular… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/why-are-state-attorneys-general-peddling-the-marijuana-tainted-halloween-candy-fake-news-forbes.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}