Denver Police Warn Parents About Pot-Laced Candy During Trick-or-Treat Season
Police say parents should go through child's candy.
— -- Denver Police are warning parents to be on the lookout for pot-laced candy this Halloween -- even releasing a video to show parents how similar pot-laced Sour Patch Kids, gummy candies and gum drops can look like the real thing.
“A kid is not going to be able to tell the difference,” said Denver Police spokesman Ron Hackett. “My daughter is 7 years old. She could care less if it’s growing mold. She’s going to eat it.”
The video shown by police features Patrick Johnson, the owner of the Urban Dispensary, who explains why parents need to be vigilant about monitoring what candy their children get.
"Edibles account for somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of our gross sales here in the shop," Johnson says in the video. "There’s really no way to tell the difference between candy that is infused and candy that's not."
Johnson advises parents to check candy brands and throw out any suspicious or unknown brands after their child goes trick-or-treating.
Dr. G. Sam Wang, a pediatric emergency room doctor at the Children's Hospital of Colorado in Denver, told ABC News he's worried about the first Halloween since recreational marijuana dispensaries have been widely accessible in Colorado.
"In our emergency department in the past couple years, we’ve seen an increase of kids with edible exposures," Wang said. "Halloween hasn’t happened yet. It is one of those things that we are concerned about and keeping our eyes open for."
Police also have been concerned that kids might be able to sneak a few pieces of pot-laced candy that parents may have intended for themselves, Hackett said.
“We kind of wanted to get ahead of anything coming out like that,” Hackett said. “We found that the adults were being irresponsible with them. They were taking them incorrectly and taking more than they should.”
ABC News' Dave Regelman contributed to this report.
