Cannabis candy clash

[Tom]

As US politicians crack down on the sale of marijuana-flavoured lollipops, another debate is raging between their manufacturers and hemp product advocates over what is in the candy.

 

Hemp advocates say the candy makers aren't being honest about what's in their confection and that publicity is hurting the sale of legal hemp products, made from a variety of the cannabis plant.

 

California-based Chronic Candy advertises that every lick of its candy is "like taking a hit".

 

The company, though, says the candies contain only hemp oil, a common ingredient in health food, beauty supplies and other household products.

 

"There is nothing illegal in our ingredients and they are ingredients that are in most hard candy in the United States," said Tom Durkin, a Chicago lawyer who represents California-based Chronic Candy.

 

Though they have no proof, hemp advocates maintain the candies contain cannabis flower essential oil, which they say is distilled from the flowers of the cannabis plant. That, they say, is illegal.

 

Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said cannabis flower essential oil would be illegal if it contains tetrahydrocannabinols, or THC, which is the illegal substance in marijuana, but he did not know whether it did.

 

Payne said the DEA would probably test the lollipops in the future.

 

Hemp oil has a nutty flavour, said Adam Eidinger, spokesman for Vote Hemp, an advocacy arm of the hemp industry.

 

"It tastes nothing like these lollipops," he said.

 

"These lollipops taste and smell like marijuana."

 

Hemp has only a trace of THC, he said. It cannot be legally grown in the United States without a permit from the DEA, he said.

 

While the debate over the lollipops' ingredients continues, states and cities across the country already are acting.

 

Chicago's City Council and Suffolk County, New York, both have passed laws banning the sale of marijuana-flavoured candies.

 

Politicians in Michigan, New Jersey and New York also have introduced legislation to ban or control the candies.

 

Durkin said the lollipops were geared toward adults and the company had never intentionally targeted children.

 

Author:AP

Date:September 9, 2005

Source:The Sydney Morning Herald.

Copyright:© 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.

 

[Bubble Bags Australia]

I have had these lollipops, a guy from the company tried to get me to carry them in my store in Vancouve rand gave me a bunch of free samples, he also had gummy candy that was flavoured like marijuana.

 

It was one of the most disgusting thing I had ever tasted. They were true to their word, because it did taste exactly like marijuana, but not that good flavour you get from a toke, not that nice nutty flavour from eating seeds, but it tasted exactly like if you were to take a handful of buds and put them in your mouth and chew, it was gross