October 31, 2019 John
Today is Halloween, which means it is time for your local news to roll out the annual scaremongering story about how there are large groups of insidious people just waiting out there to give your trick-or-treating children free marijuana edibles. This is one of those marijuana myths that simply keeps coming back from the dead with a vengeance every time the Jack-O-Lanterns start popping up on your neighbors’ doorsteps.
No one is giving out edibles to children as Halloween candy. Given the average cost of a one dose edible can range from around ten to twenty five dollars it would not only be idiotic and wrong, it would also be incredibly expensive. There has never been any widespread reports of this happening in the real world, only in the minds of ratings crazed newsrooms and fear-mongering prohibitionists.
Which is why we have to talk about it. Share our Halloween message promoting responsible consumption and shaming those fear-mongers.
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While parents should always check their kid’s candy to ensure safety, this is one threat that shouldn’t rank too highly on their list of Halloween scares. There are always a very small amount of troubled people in the world, but it this a minor threat that is getting easier and easier to prevent as states move away from the unregulated markets of prohibition, to legalized adult use markets. At state license businesses, there are strict ID checks to keep marijuana products out of the hands of minors and regulations on edibles that make them safer for adults and easier to identify to keep away from kids. Under prohibition, these products remain untested and those who produce and sell them are incentivized to make them look like any other food product to avoid the attention of law enforcement. Legalizing and regulating marijuana has countless benefits and better enabling parents and communities to keep marijuana products away from young ones is among them.
NORML Nation, have a fun, safe, and evidence-based Halloween – and of course, enjoy your edibles responsibly.
Onward,
Erik
Erik Altieri
Executive Director
NORML
P.S. Our efforts to fight the fear mongers and move public policy is funded by thousands of elves, goblins, and people just like you, not the marijuana industry or other special interests. Can you kick in $5, $10 or $20 a month to help us keep going?
