By Geoff Herbert
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Police are asking parents to check their kids’ Halloween candy after weed gummies were allegedly given to a trick-or-treater in Upstate New York.
The Massena Police Department in St. Lawrence County said Tuesday night that a bag of marijuana edibles were given to a child while trick-or-treating in the Massena, N.Y., area. Police did not say if anyone ingested the gummies or if anyone was harmed, but the bag appeared unopened in a photo on Facebook.
“Please check your children’s trick-or-treating candy before they eat any,” police said in a public safety announcement on Facebook. “If you locate a similar bag of ‘candy,’ please bring it to the Massena Police Department with information on where you trick-or-treated.”
The gummies are labeled as Sour Bites Ragin’ Reds edibles with 600 mg of THC. Each package contains six sour gummy bites in flavors like strawberry, watermelon, cherry, and raspberry; each “bite” contains 100 mg of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the high-inducing chemical in cannabis products.
According to KushGoody.com and BCBudSupply.com, each package costs at least $25. Recreational marijuana products and dispensaries are legal in New York state, but cannabis users must be 21 years old or older; most trick-or-treaters are much younger.
Police did not say if they suspected the edibles were intentionally or accidentally handed out on Halloween. The packaging appears similar to a non-marijuana product, Sour Punch Bites Assorted Ragin’ Reds Candy, from the American Licorice Company. Both packages feature cartoon fruit characters making a “sour” face; the main difference is the edibles’ packaging includes the word “edibles” and “600 mg” at the bottom, along with a small California cannabis symbol that includes a pot leaf image.
On Monday, Nassau Police warned schoolchildren that legal cannabis products may be mixed in with candy during Halloween trick-or-treating. The Long Island city has seen a 20-fold increase in accidental cannabis ingesting in the form of gummies, including more than 800 hospital visits.
“There are some people out there that are real idiots and they think it’s funny to give somebody a cannabis edible without telling them, and it’s not funny. Those people can end up in the emergency room and it can be very dangerous,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told CBS.
Most tales of candy being poisoned, drugged or stuffed with razor blades are a myth — largely related to fears of Tylenol poisonings in the 1980s — but authorities still regularly encourage parents to check their children’s candy, including for possible treats that have been tampered with or laced with drugs. Warning signs include an unusual appearance or any discoloration; tiny pinholes or tears in wrappers; unwrapped items; and homemade items or baked goods (unless you personally know who handed them out).
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