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Saturday, November 14, 2009

January 18, 2007

Pot Dealers Peddle Sugar High

More marijuana-laced food products are showing up in underground markets. This week, the Drug Enforcement Administration raided marijuana distribution centers across Los Angeles County. After serving 11 federal search warrants, DEA agents seized quite a haul: Along with several thousand pounds of cannabis, pot plants, weapons, and cash, they found "large quantities of marijuana-laced edibles." These "edibles" seem to be a growing trend among the medical marijuana crowd and other stoners. The feds are finding the items "especially on the West Coast," says one, but they're turning up as far away as the United Kingdom. Check out some of the products seized this week:

These candy bars make use of something called "cannabutter." Hmm ... I don't like to rely on Wikipedia, but it seems a good starting point for this sort of definition: "an oil/fat/butter based solution which has been infused with cannabinoids"–cannabinoids being the active ingredients responsible for "the plant's peculiar pharmacological effects."

Here's another one: Grape Ape Soda. Note the advisory, "For Medicinal Use Only." Somehow I don't think this is FDA approved.

This picture above and the photos below are from a similar Bay Area outfit, busted last year. It was manufacturing all kinds of pot-laced candy and soft drinks. Among the products seized: Stoney Ranchers, Munchy Way, Rasta Reece's, Buddafingers, and Pot Tarts.

As one DEA source put it, "The dealers are becoming very creative." And while it may seem cute, folks, bear in mind the penalties are serious: The guy who ran the Bay Area operation is now serving a 70-month jail term in federal prison.

Photo credits: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

Posted at 07:30 PM

Bad Guys
David E. Kaplan is chief investigative correspondent at U.S. News & World Report. His work includes cover stories on intelligence agencies, police spying, Saudi financing of jihad groups, and the growing use of organized crime by terrorists. Among Kaplan's books are Yakuza and The Cult at the End of the World, on the doomsday sect that nerve gassed Tokyo's subway. You can reach Kaplan at badguys@usnews.com.

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