CANNABIS CANDY CHILD PROTECTION ACT (AB 1207)
Author: Assembly Member Irwin
THE ISSUE RATIONAL Ran Communicat1015
As California's legal cannabis market matures, exposure to cannabis Child exposure to and consumption of cannabls is neither necessary nor an marketing, and the range of cannabis products, have grown with it. Laws acceptable by-product of a legal cannabis market. Our children, youth, and regulations must also evolve alongside this new market to ensure the parents and schools cannot afford the continued proliferation of cannabis safety of our children and youth. products attractive to children. The Cannabis Candy Chlld Protection Act will honor the promise and intent of Prop 64 to keep cannabis and its PROMISES OF PROP 64 products out of the hands and bodies of our children. • "Marijuana products shall be: (1) Not designed to be appealing to children or easily confused with commercially sold candy or foods that do not AB 1207 will:
contain marijuana." • Clarify the definition of what is considered "attractive to children." • Purpose and intent to "Prohibit the marketing and advertising of • Clearly prohibit the sale, manufacture, packaging, labeling or nonmedical marijuana to persons younger than 21 years old;" marketing of cannabis products in forms attractive to chlldren. • Require that edible cannabis products be composed of physically • "Produced and sold with a standardized dosage of cannabinoids not to separated individual doses.
exceed ten (10) milligrams tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) per serving." • Require that hard candies or gummies, the most frequently ingested Inexplicably, regulations weakened, rather than enforced, these by young children, not be brightly colored. protections, failing to put in place systems to assess and prevent products • Create consistency with AB 793/Proposition 31 for tobacco by from being attractive to children or to resemble conventional candy or food prohibiting marketing of cannabis products intended for inhalation as typically marketed to kids. Product prohibition was limited only to those flavored, tactics known to initiate youth use (cannabis vape parallels to flavored Juul).
determined to violate these provisions on a case by case basis. The result has been the proliferation of hundreds of products in legal commerce with • Require adoption of emergency regulations to implement these characteristics of candies and foods typically marketed to or known to provisions. attract children and youth in their physical form, name, packaging or labeling, often with ten doses in a single soda can or edible bar. EXAMPLES These are examples of cannabis products and their packaging clearly IMPACT ON CHILDREN imitating a candy/food marketed to children and likely to attract youth.
Source: Weedmaps
• Annual cannabis exposures reported to California Poison Control Increased from below 200 in 2010 to over 1600 by 2020; 50% involved children, half below age 12; ingestion of gummies, candies, chocolate Jeeter TSUMO
and drinks increased significantly. There were only 16 total reported Juse gummy exposures between 2010 and 2015 vs. 409 in 2020 alone. 1 SNAZZLE O•
LIQUID DIAMONDS
• Nationally, edible cannabis poisonings of children six and under ONION increased 1,375% between 2017 and 2021? growing in severity. Many Reef resulted in intensive care or mechanical ventilation, and even, though CANNABIS-INFUSED uncommon, in death. In those under age 10, edibles were the first cause. followed by plant material, then concentrates and vaping products. For ORANGE
10-20 year olds, plant material led, followed by edibles, concentrates KUCH and vaping products, demonstrating that the problem extends beyond 100
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just edibles. NT. WT. 100MG (0.035 02 19
• Cannabis-related emergency department visits in California Increased by 75% between 2016 and 2020.
• At Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, children under age 10 testing positive for THC quadrupled since 2016, mostly from edibles, of which TSUMO SNACKS
three quarters were from candies or gummies. Half led to hospitalization and one in ten to intensive care. 3
CHEESE
• Multiple CA school districts experienced incidents of cannabis poisoned children, often in groups, requiring evacuation by ambulance, typically CANNABIS-INFUSED after ingesting products marketed to resemble candies or chips. Schools are also seeing widespread vaping of high THC cannabis products marketed as flavored.
For More Information Contact: Dr. Lynn Silver, [email protected] American
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