Testtube candy angers local parents

`Shocking' find: Group working to keep drug lookalike treat from kids

BY BRYAN MONROE
Mercury News Staff Writer

A San Jose grandmother is fighting to have a white, powdered candy that
is packaged in test tubes taken off the shelves, saying it looks like a
vial of cocaine and could encourage drug use among children.

``When I saw it, I was shocked,'' said Peggy Allred. ``I just couldn't
believe they'd be allowed to sell something like this.''

Some parents, teachers and police share her concern. Officers say the
candy could be mistaken for drugs, and that if they found it, the child
could find himself behind bars.

``If it looks to the officer like a controlled substance, then that's
enough for probable cause,'' said John Carrillo, a spokesman for the San
Jose Police Department. ``The individual can be arrested and brought
down to the station, where the substance is then tested.''

Called the Crave, the candy is manufactured by a cola and candy company
called Eat Me Now Foods and is packaged in surplus medical test tubes
labeled with names such as Avalanche, White Lie and Cloud Nine.

But the coowner of the company that makes the candy thinks the whole
issue is overblown.

``I can't see what the big deal is. Let's give the kids more credit,''
said Steve Corri. ``It's a test tube filled with white sugar. So what?''

Allred, 60, who raised six children, said she first saw the candy when
her 11yearold grandson, Kenny, came home with it last month. That's
when she and Kenny's mother, Vicki Woodward of Simi Valley, launched a
campaign to rid stores of the Crave and a line of alternative sodas made
by the same company, with names like Rat Bastard Root Beer and D.O.A.
Cola.

They are circulating petitions in the Bay Area and Southern California
to pressure the store owners and the state to stop allowing products
packaged like these to be sold to children. They have appeared on
``Hard Copy,'' and local television in San Jose and Los Angeles, and
have sent packages to the ``Geraldo'' show and ``Prime Time Live.''

``I don't think this is appropriate stuff for a child to have,'' said
Allred. ``What kind of person would sell this junk?''

Corri would.

Corri, a selfdescribed musician and artist, said he designed the candy
more for fun than for profit, although he says his company is making
money off the Crave. And he chose to package it in a test tube because
it ``showed off the product'' and was inexpensive.

What about the comparison to a vial of cocaine or other drugs? Corri
dismisses it: ``We don't care. We did it 'cause we wanted to do it.''

And he dismisses parents' concerns.

``Hell, these parents are like sheep. They're nothing but uptight,
narrowminded, selfrighteous, mentally constipated hypocrites, afraid
to have fun.

``I talk to my kids. Most parents don't. Most parents have no control
over their children and that's why they're after me. It's their problem,
not mine. I just make candy.''

Local middleschool officials say the Crave has not yet shown up on
campus, but they found the concept appalling.

``I feel the company ought to be hung up by their thumbs. This is
awful,'' said Maureen Munroe, a spokeswoman for San Jose Unified School
District.

``We have a zerotolerance policy. You see something like this that
looks suspicious, you nab the little critters, right on the spot,'' said
Munroe.

Many schools do not allow candy or gum on campus, except for those
approved for sale in oncampus stores or vending machines.

Students hanging out at the Great Mall in Milpitas say that the candy is
popular.

``Yeah, I've seen it around, but I won't touch it again,'' said
13yearold Damien Dabney, a student at Morrill Middle School in San
Jose. ``It looks too much like drugs.''

One of the largest area candy stores, the Sweet Factory, sells the Crave
for $1.50 per tube at its outlets in Valley Fair, Eastridge and Oakridge
malls, usually displaying the tubes in racks near the cash register. It
is among the bestselling candies in the popular sourcandy category.
Some flavors, with names like Shock the Monkey, Purple Blaze and Devil's
Blood, also stain the child's tongue various colors.

``It sells very well, I guess because of the `kidfun' factor,'' said
Frann Wolfe, vice president for marketing for the Sweet Factory
headquarters in San Diego.

She said the company had not received any consumer complaints.

``Ultimately, the market will take care of it. If it's not meant to be,
then it won't sell,'' said Wolfe. ``That's the bottom line. Until then,
we'll keep selling it.''

Federal Food and Drug Administration officials have not received any
local complaints, and say that they're not sure what they could do if
they did.

``If it is labeled properly, there's not much the FDA can do about it,''
said Janet McDonald, a spokeswoman at the FDA office in Alameda. ``We
probably would have no jurisdiction over it, if they call it a candy and
it is a candy.''

Eat Me Now Foods, which also operates Skeleteens beverage company and
Garvey Candy and Nut distribution company, began in 1991 with its
popular Skeleteens brand of alternative sodas. Sold in coffee houses,
liquor stores and specialty clothing shops, drinks such as Brainwash,
Love Potion 69, Fukola Cola and Black Lemonade are leading the company
to projected 1997 sales of $12 million, according to published reports.

Controversy is not new to Corri's companies. In 1994, Skeleteens was the
target of an FDA investigation in Carlsbad, after a 12yearold boy
drank a halfbottle of Brainwash and came home dizzy, with a ``buzz.''

Area stores stopped selling the drink because of complaints, but a
spokeswoman for the FDA in Irvine said that the investigation was later
closed.

``We couldn't find anything in the product, at least in any dangerous
levels,'' said FDA spokeswoman Rosario Vior.

John Craven, president of BevNet, a beverage industry trade publication
that reviews new drinks, said the company's line won't win many fans for
flavor alone..

``Most of their products aren't very goodtasting. Actually, they've
very repulsive,'' said Craven.

But it's the packaging, not the taste, that has Allred upset.

``Look at what it says on this label,'' Allred said, pointing to the
label of Rat Bastard Root Beer, which says ``This time, put it in your
mouth.''

``This is obscene,'' she said. ``If you wanna put it in a head shop or
behind the counter, fine, but not for children under 18.''

Allred and Woodward have gathered fewer than 1,000 signatures on their
petitions but are visiting local schools and PTA meetings to raise
support. They plan on taking their campaign to the state Legislature.

Corri, on the other hand, defends his packaging as ``fun,'' but says he
is not against pulling the whitepowder candy off the shelves.

``If anybody can give us a logical reason why, sure, we'd consider
stop(ping) selling it.''

Published Tuesday, September 16, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News