Pot candy warning derided as scare tactic

New Jersey is warning parents to look out for people slipping their kids marijuana-laced candy while trick-or-treating. But with no apparent evidence that’s ever happened, advocates for legalizing the drug say it’s nothing more than a Halloween scare tactic.

The state attorney general’s office published a document being shared by law enforcement agencies around New Jersey and beyond, including a warning about a “significant presence of marijuana candy and other edible forms in New Jersey and nearby states.”

“The presence of these edible forms of marijuana poses a great risk to users, especially to children, who may accidentally receive marijuana candy during Halloween,” the warning said.

The warning cites the case of a 10-year-old New York boy who police said became ill after eating candy infused with cannabis found in the back seat of his family’s car, but that had nothing to do with Halloween.

Advocates say marijuana candy has seemingly become the new “razor blades in the apples” Halloween urban myth, with police around the country sharing the message despite the lack of any known cases.

“Cannabis consumers are not looking to dose children with cannabis. That is not something that I’ve ever heard of anybody ever being interested in doing or wanting to do or would think is ethical,” said Evan Nison, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of NORML, which is pushing to legalize marijuana. “This is just something that some police officers sometimes say every year, never really comes to fruition, and is just a scare tactic.”