Jacob Bell
New Member
News that several Vallejo fifth-graders shared a marijuana-infused ginger snap Monday has some local marijuana dispensaries promising to scrutinize their own packaging.
Jorge Espinosa, manager of Better Health Group Collective, said he and members of several Vallejo medical marijuana dispensaries plan to address how to they can uniformly make warnings on marijuana snacks more obvious. They will discuss the issue at a meeting Monday, he said.
"It's a big deal because kids shouldn't be getting a hold of this medicine - because it does bring a bad picture," Espinosa said. "Because it came from a dispensary, from what it looks like."
Vallejo police are looking for a 57-year-old Vallejo man they believe provided two cannabis-laced cookies to a Calco Mart and Gas station clerk. On Monday, the clerk passed them on to an 11-year-old boy, who shared them with classmates, Vallejo police Sgt. Jeff Bassett said Thursday.
It is unclear if either the man or the store clerk will face any charges in the ongoing investigation. It is a felony in California to provide any amount of cannabis to a person under 14.
At least four children were treated at an area hospital after reporting symptoms of dizziness and nausea shortly after sharing one of the ginger snaps at Grace Patterson Elementary School. Schools officials said the students were unaware the cookies contained marijuana, although the label indicates that they contained cannabis butter, were produced for those only with a prescription and should be kept away from children. The label indicated that each cookie contained six 0.6-gram doses of medical marijuana.
Espinosa and other dispensary managers told the Times-Herald this week that they sell food products known as "edibles" containing marijuana, as an alternative to smoking marijuana. None, however, said they sell "Auntie's Edibles," the brand of the two cookies police recovered Monday.
Life Enhancement Services manager Hakeem Brown, who has an 8-year-old child, said he was outraged to hear children had obtained the cannabis cookies. Brown criticized the cookies' logo that includes a caricature of a blond woman wearing oven mitts and offering up confections.
"It shouldn't be packaged like it's a Jolly Rancher," Brown said of edibles. "The marketing is really just frivolous. To a certain extent, I definitely talk about (the issue) with my employees. This is why we're so stringent about who comes in here, why we double check prescriptions."
Brown said he hopes police "get to the bottom" of the incident and reveal how the adult product ended up in children's hands.
Greenwell Cooperative founder Matt Shotwell said the cookies were medicine, and like any medicine, "kids are going to get their hands on it."
"It's obviously really unfortunate that it happened," Shotwell said. "It needs to not be treated so cavalierly - it needs to be treated like medicine."
For actual marijuana buds, Greenwell Cooperative packages the drug in small plastic bottles with ostensibly child-proof covers, something Shotwell claims no other Solano County dispensary does. But his edible products are provided by various vendors, with various styles of logos. Greenwell's management, like that of Life Enhancement Services and Better Health Group Collective, requests that vendors clearly label their products with warnings, representatives said.
Shotwell defended Auntie's Edible products, which he said he has seen in shops around Vallejo. Dispensaries, he said, have stronger warning standards than even alcohol packaging does, he said.
"Everybody has their own way of labeling," Shotwell said. "That brand, Auntie's Edibles ... they're on the upper end of packaging.... Some cities have regulations on edibles that they do not want the product visible through the packaging."
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: timesheraldonline.com
Author: Jessica A. York
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Vallejo Times Herald
Website: Pot dispensaries vow to improve package warnings
Jorge Espinosa, manager of Better Health Group Collective, said he and members of several Vallejo medical marijuana dispensaries plan to address how to they can uniformly make warnings on marijuana snacks more obvious. They will discuss the issue at a meeting Monday, he said.
"It's a big deal because kids shouldn't be getting a hold of this medicine - because it does bring a bad picture," Espinosa said. "Because it came from a dispensary, from what it looks like."
Vallejo police are looking for a 57-year-old Vallejo man they believe provided two cannabis-laced cookies to a Calco Mart and Gas station clerk. On Monday, the clerk passed them on to an 11-year-old boy, who shared them with classmates, Vallejo police Sgt. Jeff Bassett said Thursday.
It is unclear if either the man or the store clerk will face any charges in the ongoing investigation. It is a felony in California to provide any amount of cannabis to a person under 14.
At least four children were treated at an area hospital after reporting symptoms of dizziness and nausea shortly after sharing one of the ginger snaps at Grace Patterson Elementary School. Schools officials said the students were unaware the cookies contained marijuana, although the label indicates that they contained cannabis butter, were produced for those only with a prescription and should be kept away from children. The label indicated that each cookie contained six 0.6-gram doses of medical marijuana.
Espinosa and other dispensary managers told the Times-Herald this week that they sell food products known as "edibles" containing marijuana, as an alternative to smoking marijuana. None, however, said they sell "Auntie's Edibles," the brand of the two cookies police recovered Monday.
Life Enhancement Services manager Hakeem Brown, who has an 8-year-old child, said he was outraged to hear children had obtained the cannabis cookies. Brown criticized the cookies' logo that includes a caricature of a blond woman wearing oven mitts and offering up confections.
"It shouldn't be packaged like it's a Jolly Rancher," Brown said of edibles. "The marketing is really just frivolous. To a certain extent, I definitely talk about (the issue) with my employees. This is why we're so stringent about who comes in here, why we double check prescriptions."
Brown said he hopes police "get to the bottom" of the incident and reveal how the adult product ended up in children's hands.
Greenwell Cooperative founder Matt Shotwell said the cookies were medicine, and like any medicine, "kids are going to get their hands on it."
"It's obviously really unfortunate that it happened," Shotwell said. "It needs to not be treated so cavalierly - it needs to be treated like medicine."
For actual marijuana buds, Greenwell Cooperative packages the drug in small plastic bottles with ostensibly child-proof covers, something Shotwell claims no other Solano County dispensary does. But his edible products are provided by various vendors, with various styles of logos. Greenwell's management, like that of Life Enhancement Services and Better Health Group Collective, requests that vendors clearly label their products with warnings, representatives said.
Shotwell defended Auntie's Edible products, which he said he has seen in shops around Vallejo. Dispensaries, he said, have stronger warning standards than even alcohol packaging does, he said.
"Everybody has their own way of labeling," Shotwell said. "That brand, Auntie's Edibles ... they're on the upper end of packaging.... Some cities have regulations on edibles that they do not want the product visible through the packaging."
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: timesheraldonline.com
Author: Jessica A. York
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Vallejo Times Herald
Website: Pot dispensaries vow to improve package warnings
