In a State with Recreational Marijuana Use, Officials Grow Concerned about Pot Candy for Halloween

Colorado is one of two states in the US that recently legalized full recreational use of marijuana. The state features numerous dispensaries with pot edibles like brownies and pot candy lollipops for those who are curious.

However, some officials have issued a warning recently about potential pot candy making its way into children’s trick-or-treat bags and baskets this coming Halloween.

Denver Police released a video for concerned parents to show the differences between pot candy and regular candy, and how the two can easily be mistaken at first glance.

“A kid is not going to be able to tell the difference,” said Denver Police spokesman Ron Hackett. “My daughter is 7 years old. She could care less if it’s growing mold. She’s going to eat it.”

“Edibles account for somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of our gross sales here in the shop,” Patrick Johnson, the owner of the Urban Dispensary, says in the video. “There’s really no way to tell the difference between candy that is infused and candy that’s not.”

“The problem is some of these products look so similar to candy that’s been on the market that we’ve eaten as children,” he continued. “There’s really no way for a child or a parent, or anybody, even an expert in the field, to tell you whether a product is infused or not.”

Some pot candy names released in the video include Dabby Patty, Peanut Butter Jelly Crunch Truffle, Monkey Bar, Patty’s Peppermint and Fireberry Bar. If these names are on packaging, parents should make sure to keep these pot edibles away from their children.

Although the threat is rare, authorities encourage parents to keep an eye out for pot edibles. Some recent scientific studies suggest that pot use can lead to brain changes, especially in children or young adults whose brains have not finished growing.

“I think the findings that there are observable differences in brain structure with marijuana even in these young adult recreational users indicate that there are significant effects of marijuana on the brain,” says Dr. Jodi Gilman, lead author and a researcher in the Massachusetts General Center for Addiction Medicine. “Those differences were exposure-dependent, meaning those who used more marijuana had greater abnormalities.

“We found that people who began using marijuana in their teenage years and then continued to use marijuana for many years lost about 8 IQ points from childhood to adulthood,” says study author Madeline Meier, now a professor at Arizona State University, “whereas those who never used marijuana did not lose any IQ points.”

Denver authorities suggest that parents should remove any candy that does not have a familiar label on it, and scrutinize candies with familiar labels, in case the branding of the pot edibles looks similar to existing brand names.

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