NEW YORK (AP) — When Latest York’s first licensed recreational marijuana outlet opened last month, the chief of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, Chris Alexander, proudly hoisted a tin of watermelon-flavored gummies above the group.
Outside the Manhattan shop, he displayed one other purchase — a jar containing dried flowers of a cannabis strain called Banana Runtz, which some aficionados say has overtones of “fresh, fruity banana and sour candy.”
Contained in the store run by the nonprofit Housing Works, shelves brimmed with vape cartridges suggesting flavors of pineapple, grapefruit and “cereal milk,” written in rainbow bubble letter print.
For a long time, health advocates have chided the tobacco industry for marketing harmful nicotine products to children, leading to more cities and states, like Latest York, outlawing flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.
Now as cannabis shops proliferate across the country, the identical concerns are growing over the packaging and marketing of flavored cannabis that critics say could entice children to partake of products labeled “mad mango,” “loud lemon” and “peach dream.”
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“We must always learn from the nicotine space, and I definitely would advocate that we must always place similar concern on cannabis products when it comes to their appealability to youth,” said Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University who has written extensively concerning the rise in marijuana use amongst young people.
“In the event you undergo a cannabis dispensary right away,” she said, “it’s almost absurd how youth oriented a variety of the packaging and the products are.”
Keyes added that public health policymakers — and researchers like her — are attempting to meet up with an industry and marketplace that’s rapidly expanding and evolving.
Latest York, which legalized recreational marijuana in March 2021, forbids marketing and promoting that “is designed in any strategy to appeal to children or other minors.”
But Latest York’s state Office of Cannabis Management has yet to officially adopt rules on labeling, packaging and promoting that might ban cartoons and neon colours, in addition to prohibit depictions of food, candy, soda, drinks, cookies or cereal on packaging — all of which, the agency suggests, could attract people under 21.
“Consumers have to be aware — parents have to be aware — in the event that they see products that appear to be other products which can be commonly marketed to kids, that is a bootleg market product,” said Lyla Hunt, OCM’s deputy director of public health and campaigns.
Hunt recently saw a cannabis product calling itself ”Stony Patch Kids” that she said looked like the favored candy “Sour Patch Kids.”
Similar products are being sold by the handfuls of illegal pot dispensaries that operate out within the open and that officials worry are selling unsafe products. Once packaging and marketing standards are established, the illicit marketplace will likely not comply, experts say.
“We are able to regulate until we’re blue within the face. But the reality is, it’s a partnership between a compliant industry, strong regulations which can be robust of their protections for youth after which with parents, too,” Hunt said.
Under state law, a minor in possession of marijuana would face a civil penalty of not greater than $50. Licensed cannabis retailers who sell to minors face fines and the lack of their licenses, but no jail time.
Science has long established the addictive nature of nicotine and the health maladies related to smoking tobacco, including cancer and emphysema.
Less settled are the health repercussions from vaping, particularly amongst children whose bodies and internal organs have yet to completely develop.
While smoking tobacco cigarettes has fallen amongst teens and young adults, using e-cigarettes and vapes has risen.
A handful of states — California, Massachusetts, Latest Jersey, Latest York, and Rhode Island — have bans on most flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and vapes. An increasing variety of cities, including Latest York City, even have similar bans.
But those rules have to be broadened to incorporate marijuana, said Linda Richter with the Partnership to End Addiction, who says the problem has yet to be widely addressed.
“There may be more scrutiny on the tobacco industry, and really, little or no when it comes to rules, regulations, scrutiny, limitations in terms of the cannabis industry,” she said.
Due to relative infancy of the legalized industry, she added, states have yet to coalesce rules on a single national standard. States often look to the federal government to set those standards, but marijuana stays illegal on the federal level.
“That’s an actual issue where you don’t have the load of the federal government when it comes to standards of packaging and marketing,” to set parameters to avoid appealing marketing to young people, Richter said.
Anti-smoking groups, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, have long railed against the tobacco industry for its marketing, corresponding to using cartoon characters to assist market their products. In newer years, they’ve campaigned against flavored nicotine products, including those in vaping form.
But to this point, such groups haven’t put the marijuana industry in its crosshairs.
The uptick in cases coincides with the rise within the variety of states allowing using marijuana for medicine or recreation. Medical use of cannabis is currently allowed in 37 U.S. states, while 21 states allow recreational use.
“If you’re talking about strawberry-cheesecake, or mango, or cookies-and-cream flavors, it’s very difficult to argue that those are for older adults,” said Dr. Pamela Ling, the director for the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education on the University of California in San Francisco.
“Folks who consider themselves to be more like cannabis aficionados,” she said, “would say that smoking a flavored cannabis product is like putting ketchup in your steak.”
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