Illegal Marijuana Advent Calendars Have Experts Worried
The post Illegal Marijuana Advent Calendars Have Experts Worried appeared first on High Times.
An advent calendar is a giant three-dimensional rectangle with squares for each day leading up to Christmas. There is generally a month’s worth of squares, hidden by a window flap. Behind each flap is a small gift intended for that day. A cannabis company based out of Vancouver is filling their advent calendars with weed and infused-edibles. These marijuana advent calendars have experts worried because of cannabis’ current legal status in Canada.
Cannabis Calendar
The Marijuana Advent Calendar was thought up by Lorilee Fedler of Coast to Coast Medicinals. She admitted to getting the idea from an advent calendar she saw full of beers.
“We just wanted something fun and different for adults,” Fedler told the Financial Post.
Her company is unlicensed, but that hasn’t stopped them from selling 150 calendars—with 300 orders ready to be processed and a waiting list of about 1,500 people.
Each calendar is guaranteed to be filled with only cannabis flowers or edibles that fit the holiday theme, like infused-gingerbread men. The price of each calendar is between $200 and $230.
There’s no grey area when it comes to what Fedler is doing. Selling weed-filled calendars is illegal in Canada, but she doesn’t appear to be concerned with the law or consequences.
In fact, she seems to be taking advantage of the black market while it still exists. The federal government has yet to finalize legalization, but the plan is for full legalization by July of next year.
Experts Express Concerns
The advent calendar is problematic with experts for several reasons.
“The biggest concern is it’s not a regulated product,” Rebecca Jesseman of the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction said to the Financial Post. “We’re talking about a product that has not gone through quality testing, so there’s no way to be certain as to what’s in the product in terms of the levels of THC and other cannabinoids, so what the level of intoxication will be.”
Another concern with it being an unregulated product is the increased chance of there being contaminants like pesticides, fungus or mold.
Mark Haden, a professor at the University of British Columbia believes that cannabis should be legal and regulated. However, he finds the marijuana advent calendars to be a step in the wrong direction.
“We want to make it boring,” he said. “We do not make it boring with advent calendars.”
The concern he and others have is that certain products appeal to children.
“It’s reasonable to assume that advent calenders will be opened by children,” Haden added. “That is not a good idea.”
Fedler would disagree, claiming her products contain warning labels and aren’t appealing to children by design.
“We didn’t make ours like the classic Santa or the reindeer or the snowman. We made ours like an ugly Christmas sweater,” Fedler stated. “I can see if we made it a copycat of the kids’ calendar and put some weed edibles in there, but we took it differently so it was not so attractive to kids.”
The Vancouver cannabis company has no issue illegally distributing cannabis. However, it is still attempting to keep its product out of the hands of children.
Final Hit: Marijuana Advent Calendars Are Here
Photo Courtesy of Coast2Coast Medicinals
Marijuana advent calendars are selling like hot cakes. So far, the company hasn’t heard from the police, so they intend to continue selling their product.
The post Illegal Marijuana Advent Calendars Have Experts Worried appeared first on High Times.
