New York’s $2 billion marijuana industry is under fire for selling kid-friendly products like candy and flavored vapes.
Experts today called for restrictions on outlets and tougher penalties for illegal transactions, saying the situation was spiraling out of control and had become a “danger” to communities.
As many as 1,400 stores in New York City sell cannabis products illegally, leading lawmakers and anti-legalization activists to call it the “Wild West.”
Products resembling Sour Patch Kids, Doritos and other popular snack foods have been able to stay on shelves thanks to the state’s lax enforcement tools – leading to an increase in accidental poisonings among children.
Edible marijuana products are often disguised as ordinary snacks that appeal to children – think jelly beans, chips and chocolate. Anti-legalization advocates deride lax laws that keep these products illegally on store shelves
Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of the anti-cannabis legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, told DailyMail.com: “People are hearing from this wild west of literally thousands of different types of products that appeal to young people. And they think, well, let’s just write laws to regulate it. Well, every state that has legalized marijuana has a law [that] Companies can’t make products that appeal to young people, and yet we have those products.”
Mr Niforatos said the problem was not just a lack of comprehensive laws on the books. This is the absolute minimum way of politics to confront the defaulting companies.
Should cannabis edibles that look like candy be banned?
Experts have called for proper regulation of edible cannabis products after another study found that increasing numbers of children are being poisoned by them.
“State governments do not regulate the industry properly because they cannot or because they do not have the political will. And the industry is so well funded that it has the best lobbyists and the best lawyers dancing around what is in this legislation.”
Only one dispensary in New York operates with the proper permits, and there isn’t much more the authorities can do to shut down the renegade cannabis clubs.
Sheriff Anthony Miranda and other law enforcement officials complained about weak penalties during a City Council hearing Wednesday, noting that existing laws make it difficult to immediately shut down illegal businesses and often only allow a measly $250 fine for selling marijuana without a license.
Sheriff Miranda said, “A lot of marketing goes to kids. There’s a lot of public health issues, danger to the community. We want to make sure they stick to that.”
Child-friendly packaging is common in the US. A survey last year of 256 photos of cannabis-infused packaging sold in 24 states, DC and Puerto Rico from May 2020 to August 2021 found that 15 percent of the packaging was counterfeit branded products.
Features that would appeal to children, such as characters and creatures, flavor images, and flavor text, were present on 23 percent, 35 percent, and 91 percent of the labels, respectively.
Recreational marijuana was legalized in New York in March 2021. The law included a provision specifically prohibiting marketing and advertising that is “in any way intended to appeal to children or other minors.”
Anti-marijuana legalization activists and health experts fear that teen marijuana use, especially edible and flavored vapors, could soon become a crisis similar to teen vaping of nicotine
But the state Bureau of Cannabis Management has not issued specific labeling, packaging and advertising regulations that would prohibit cartoons and neon colors or images of food, candy, soft drinks, beverages, cookies or cereal on packaging.
As a result, it struggles to keep up with the approximately 1,400 pharmacies in the city that still sell these products without a license.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, authorized a task force in November to try to stem the tide of impromptu marijuana sales, with a two-week sting that seized $4.1 million at 53 locations and fined them up to $50,000 dollar imposed.
“The task force has moved on,” Sheriff Miranda said. It didn’t stop even after two weeks. We regrouped. We have analyzed the information we have received and now we are going out.”
However, he added that the smoke shop owners are now setting up a network of whisperers to warn people about raids.
The NYPD reported finding 428, the most of Brooklyn’s 1,321 illegal dispensaries. There are 373 in Manhattan, 226 in Queens, 204 in the Bronx, and 90 on Staten Island.
Dr. Linda Richter, vice president of prevention research and analysis at the Partnership to End Addiction, said: “While most state governments that have legalized marijuana have certain provisions in their laws to protect children from accessing and consuming these products to protected, is the vaguest and most inappropriate and, as we see in New York and other states that have legalized, rarely enforced.”
DailyMail.com reached out to the New York City Bureau of Cannabis Management for comment, but received no response.
Meanwhile, the legal cannabis industry is thriving with a market size of around $11 billion. It is predicted to continue to grow as the laws governing drug use change. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have legalized the recreational use of marijuana for adults, a major change in the legal landscape that has led to an explosion of marijuana shops.
The industry isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon, although activists warn it could become a public health problem if left unchecked, rivaling the epidemic of nicotine vaping among youth. You are already seeing signs that the marijuana industry is causing another public health crisis as children use the drug as often as they do every day.
DR. Richter said, “When it comes to flavored marijuana, there are all the same warning signs for those who want to see it…Access to edible and flavored marijuana vapes is easy for young people, as well as hiding their marijuana use for adults. , of course the discreet nature of these products. The flavors give young people a sense of harmlessness and few realize the dangerous potential of these products.”
Advertising for marijuana products should have at least the same restrictions as advertising for cigarettes, said Dr. Judge. These include bans near places where young people are, entertainment, print and social media.
Colorful packaging, child-friendly product names, attractive flavors and edibles that look like conventional snacks should also be generally banned:
“While proponents of legalization tend to place the onus on parents and schools to protect children from commercialized drugs, and parents and schools certainly have an important role to play in prevention, the onus should rest on governments that choose to ban marijuana to ensure that children are not exposed to flavored child-friendly products and that their access to these products is truly limited.”
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
