SENATE BILL WOULD BAN 'POT CANDY'

ATLANTA - Candy that's flavored like marijuana would be outlawed
under a bill proposed in the state Senate.

The effort, spearheaded by Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, is one of
several throughout the nation targeting increasingly popular candies
marketed with drug-inspired names like Purple Haze and advertised
with slogans such as "Every Lick is Like Taking a Hit."

Marketers call the treats a harmless novelty. But anti-drug advocates
say they glorify drug use and encourage children to smoke pot.

"Should a 9-year-old be able to go into a store and get a bag of
chips, a soda pop and some dope candy?" said Fort, who announced his
bill Thursday in the parking lot of an Atlanta convenience store
where he said he bought the candy the day before. "That's ridiculous."

Fort's bill, which was co-signed by several other Democrats and at
least one Republican in Georgia's GOP-controlled Senate, bans the
sale of any "marijuana or hemp flavored candy" in the state and calls
for a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for the
second offense.

Companies that sell the candies say the lollipops, gum drops and
other treats are geared toward adults and that they advise retailers
to sell the candy only to people 18 and older.

They say the candies are flavored with legal hemp oil, which gives
them the oily, grassy taste of marijuana.

"It has the flavor and essence, without any of the pharmacological
ingredients," Tony Sosa, whose Atlanta-based Hydro Blunts company
sells the candies, said in June.

Sosa was unable to be reached by telephone on Thursday.

Some hemp advocates disagree with Sosa, claiming the candy is made
with oil from the cannabis plant's flowers that may be illegal.

The Web site for Corona, Calif.-based Chronic Candy acknowledges
using "hemp essential oil" in its products, but maintains that the
oil is legal.

Tom Durkin, a Chicago attorney who represents Chronic Candy, was
unable to be reached Thursday for comment.

Neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nor the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration has reported testing the candies.

Critics say that, regardless of its content, the candy makes using
drugs seem more attractive to children who may not have tried
marijuana themselves. The Chronic Candy Web site features photographs
of celebrities, from rapper Snoop Dogg to actor Verne Troyer, eating
the candy or wearing clothing advertising the company.

"They not only sell the candy," said community activist and former
Atlanta Councilman Derrick Boazman, "they sell a drug-induced lifestyle."

Fort and Boazman were joined in the convenience store parking lot by
about a half-dozen people holding signs that read "Stop Chronic
Candy." The name is a reference to street slang for marijuana.

An employee inside the store, who did not give his name, said the
shop stopped selling the lollipops in the past few days.