Parents: Check #Halloween candy for #marijuana infused candy. pic.twitter.com/i2RpF3Ovo9
— NJ Attorney General (@NewJerseyAG) October 24, 2017
There are no documented cases of kids being poisoned by marijuana-laced Halloween candy. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
But that isn’t stopping officials across the country from issuing dire warnings to parents about the alleged threat of pot candy in kids’ Halloween baskets. A few recent headlines:
Despite the complete lack of evidence of Halloween-related pot poisoning, marijuana candy remains a perennial favorite boogeyman among law enforcement officials, as well as media outlets looking for a scare story.
Pot candy panic first kicked into high gear in 2014, the year the country’s first recreational marijuana markets opened in Colorado and Washington state. Edible products, candy among them, proved to be surprisingly popular among pot consumers, accounting for nearly 50 percent of all legal marijuana sales in Colorado in 2014.
That popularity brought complications — stories of children (and adults) accidentally eating a pot brownie or candy, as well as a couple of instances of people killing either themselves or others after getting high on edibles.
