One of the most serious areas of concern surrounding the recent onslaught of weed legalization sweeping across the nation is the dangers posed to children. While weed is completely benign to the human body and generally has overwhelmingly positive effects, there is a danger that children will consume THC treats that will swiftly send them to the Emergency Room. There is currently a lack of appropriate legislation with regard to the marketing and packaging of marijuana, but the regulations concerning marijuana edibles are almost nonexistent. It is up to parents to guard their children from edibles at this early stage of weed legalization. Colorado recently made the decision to ban the recreational sale of gummy bear marijuana edibles as it was deemed too appealing to kids.
New Jersey Scare Tactic
New Jersey is warning parents to look out for people slipping their kids marijuana-laced candy while trick-or-treating. However, with no apparent evidence that’s ever happened, advocates for legalizing the drug say the move is nothing more than a Halloween scare tactic.The state attorney general’s office published a document being shared by law enforcement agencies around New Jersey and beyond. The document included a warning with regard to a‘significant presence of marijuana candy and other edible forms in New Jersey and nearby states.’
The warning cites the case of a 10-year-old New York boy who police said became ill after eating candy infused with cannabis found in the back seat of his family’s car, but that had nothing to do with Halloween.Advocates say marijuana candy has seemingly become the new ‘razor blades in the apples’ Halloween urban myth, with police around the country sharing the message despite the lack of any known cases. And this does appear to be the case. After all, why would ordinary citizens, like the ones reading this web page, for some reason give out marijuana edibles to kids? And why would anybody, including psychopaths, use marijuana to carry out their illicit acts? The report seems to indicate that cannabis users are doing this accidentally and have cited one case, where the child became mildly ill with marijuana, and it had nothing to do with Halloween. In other words, a warning has been issued to look out for the dangers of marijuana edibles been given to children on Halloween, on the basis of zero cases where cannabis edibles have been given to children on Halloween. This could be termed quite a weak case.
There may be some danger of kids consuming weed edibles at Halloween on the basis that they are consuming more candy, and are thus statistically more likely to consume them. But it is certainly not a serious concern and something that parents need to spend any time on, outside of the common-sense policy of not leaving marijuana edibles lying around and not mixing Halloween sweets in with weed edibles. If this happens, it is not the fault of weed and not the fault of rogue marijuana edible “psychopaths”; It is the fault of a lack of common sense, something much more prevalent and much deadlier. No amount of police of regulations are ever be going to curtail a lack of awareness, and sometimes even when precautions are taken accidents happen. Much of the hype surrounding Halloween edibles is simply a scare tactic. Many contend that if the police are concerned about cannabis edibles looking like regular candy, then the best tactic to prevent this is to legalize weed so it can be regulated. This will allow New Jersey to follow the stance of Colorado, who have banned weed gummy bears and preventing the word “candy” from appearing on marijuana edibles. The only way to regulate is to legalize. This is a possibility at present, with the Democratic candidate being in support of full marijuana legalization as opposed to the Republican candidate who is not interested.
A Little Common Sense
Sharon Lauchaire, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general, said there have been ”several instances” in the state and elsewhere of children becoming ill after eating edible marijuana. She declined to respond to follow-up questions to cite specific cases and evidence of anyone doing this on Halloween. The most probable scenario is that she lied. On a much more reasoned and nuanced tone was Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Ocean County prosecutor’s office, who stated “But you never know…All we’re saying is check your kids’ candy. If something’s not in a manufacturer’s wrapper … throw it out. We’re not trying to scare people.”
And it makes sense for parents to watch out during Halloween and maybe to take a little extra precaution if they happen to be consumers of cannabis edibles. But nothing worth such police time and effort beyond a general warning. There is no need to balloon the situation into some form of serious hazard where marijuana is once again the boogie man. In truth, even where kids do ingest marijuana, it is not the end of the world compared to some of the other killers lying around the house (bleach, perfume, Quarternary Ammonium Compounds, Perchloroethylene, dish washing detergent etc). Kids will simply feel uncomfortable for a couple of hours before drifting off to sleep with no long-term damage. The medical products that doctors give to your child if taken to the ER are possibly more harmful than the ingestion of marijuana in the first place.
