PARENTS, POLICE NOT HIGH ON 'MARIJUANA' LOLLIPOPS

LOWELL -- It was only a lollipop, but among the Levines, it created a
generation gap-like chasm of thought.

"This is outrageous," said Jackie Levine as she inspected a
marijuana-flavored lollipop still in its wrapper.

No it isn't, laughed her 14-year-old son, Ben. Levine, a Nashua
schoolteacher, contends that Pot Suckers, which are popular and fast
disappearing from the countertops at Spencer Gifts, shouldn't be sold at
all. Soon they won't be. New Jersey-based ICUP Inc. stopped distribution
late last month, despite strong sales.

Naked without it wrapper, the hemp-green lollipop, which is made by several
companies, looks innocent enough.

But its label showing cannabis leaves, the Jefferson Airplane line, "Feed
your head, feed your belly," a warning that it's "highly addictive." The
label boasts, "Tastes like the real 'deal,'" with an emphasis on deal.
"It's a bad promotion and sends a bad message," Levine said. Her son, Ben,
however, said it's OK because the product lacks illegal substances such as
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that gives marijuana its high. "It's not like
someone's smoking it," he said.

The Chicago City Council recently banned the lollipops. Doreen Arcus,
University of Massachusetts Lowell's associate professor of psychology,
said marketers shrewdly make the marijuana theme alluring. "You worry about
it being a gateway when it's marketed to a child," she said. But Steven
Trachtenberg, president of ICUP, defended Pot Suckers, calling them
strictly a "novelty item" aimed at the demographic group targeted by his
retail outlet, Spencer Gifts, 18- to 24-year-olds.

So why stop distributing them? "It's a company decision," he said, adding
the suggestion that ICUP yielded to political pressure.

He declined to say how many Pot Suckers were sold or how much revenue they
generated. By his account, Pot Suckers was his company's only candy. It
makes 100 products including T-shirts, games and shot glasses. ICUP will
continue its " Stonerware" line of marijuana-theme products such as a
chess set with a "bong king and queen," he said.

"We sell no paraphernalia. In my opinion we are doing nothing wrong," said
Trachtenberg.

However, he offered his belief that parents tend to overreact to matters
regarding their children, overprotect them and blame others for their
failings. Barbara Quish, Tewksbury mother of four children, ages 14 to 24,
agreed with him to a point.

She said parents, more than school, TV, video and other influences, are
chiefly responsible for shaping their children's behavior. Nevertheless,
she objects to the way Pot Suckers seems to make marijuana alluring. They
remind her of the chalk-colored candy cigarettes with the red tips that
generations of kids puffed and flicked. The confections perhaps paved the
way for real tobacco-smoking later on.

What irks Quish more than the lollipops' image are the ingredients -- laden
with sugar, corn syrup and six kinds of yellow, red and blue dyes. "I'm
into healthy things and this is all artificial," she said. For the most
part, parents and police haven't seen Pot Suckers around. "It hasn't
reached us yet but I think it's awful," said Keith Sheppard, a Burlington
police officer whose station isn't far from the Spencer Gifts shop
at Burlington Mall which sells the lollipops. "It advertises a child
product (that leans) toward an illegal substance. It's incomprehensible."
Ken Lavallee, Lowell police deputy superintendent, also dislikes the
product. "Personally I think it's a fad . . . I don't think it will have an
impact," he said. Spencer Gifts spokeswoman Heather Golin said the
58-year-old New Jersey-based chain's decision to sell Pot Suckers wasn't
meant as an endorsement of marijuana or drug culture.

"This is just another flavor of candy -- like piA a colada or strawberry
daiquiri jelly beans," she said.

Asked about the highly-addictive warning, she called it "tongue-in-cheek."
Since it began selling Pot Suckers in August, Spencer Gifts has sold well
over 100,000 -- proof she said that the chain knows its customers well.
"Our core customers, the 18- to 24-year-olds, love to be social, hang out
with friends," she said.

She said she's fielded a few complaints but "not a lot." "Obviously if a
law is passed (banning Pot Suckers)," she said, "we will abide by it."