Well, actually the AP is reporting at MSNBC.com, but I am asking your opinion on the matter.
HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Hershey Co. said Friday it is considering changes to the design of a mint that
Philadelphia police say looks nearly identical to a tiny heat-sealed bag used to sell powdered street drugs.
Apparently the street thug drug dealers have the market on the design?
Hershey at first rejected the police claims. “The product is clearly labeled with product identification, ingredients and nutritional information and is clearly branded as an Ice Breakers item,” the company said in a statement earlier this week.
Ice Breakers Pacs, which first hit store shelves last month, are nickel-sized dissolvable pouches with a powdered sweetener inside. The pouches come in blue or orange and bear the Ice Breakers logo.
Police warn of the danger:
The firm said Friday the mints were never intended to resemble anything — but the similarity was so striking that longtime veterans of Philadelphia’s police narcotics squad were fooled when they saw the mints.
Philadelphia police Chief Inspector William Blackburn last week said the mints glorify the drug trade. And he warned that the resemblance could have consequences if, for example, a child familiar with the mints swallows a heat-sealed bag of cocaine.
Well, what about those unfortunate children familiar with the cocaine packets accidentally swallowing a packet of ice-breakers?
“If Hershey is considering changes, that’s a good thing, that’s the prudent thing to do,” Blackburn said Friday. “And that’s what we wanted — we wanted to prevent a tragedy.”
Maybe if we sealed the freaking border and stopped imprisoning border agents trying to do their job, their might not be so many little cocaine packets floating around? Just an idea.
Seriously, there can be a variety of views on this and I’d like to hear yours. I mean, I’m a little naive to tiny heat-sealed bags used to sell powdered street drugs. Is Hershey as naive as myself?
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Tammi, yes, you are naive; so am I.
In fact, I was really shocked to hear about the redesign to sugar packets. Apparently, given the striking similarity between sugar and street cocaine, police and child welfare advocates are urging the sugar cane industry to redesign their product so as to not be mistaken with that other white powder. They are asking them to either dye the sugar, or, given the correlation between sugar and obesity, to stop selling the product altogether.
Hi Bridget,
What are we going to do if someone starts making a street drug that resembles chocolate? Are we going to have to redesign the delectable treat?
Glad you are naive too.
The words that went through my mind were similar to the ones that would go through my mind if “Hillary Clinton, President” were to become a reality.
(Shivers)
Maybe if we sealed the freaking border and stopped imprisoning border agents trying to do their job, their might not be so many little cocaine packets floating around? ..amen amen amen Tammi!…how pathetic is our society becoming!
We should all buy a few cases of these things and sell them to drug addicts for $10 a piece! And then run like heck.
I’m sorry Bridget — I shouldn’t use such extreme analogies.
It did get your attention though, didn’t it?
Hi Angel,
I’m still praying those border patrol agents are out of prison and spending this Christmas with their families!
Wow Kevin — I think you might be onto something … think of all the extra Christmas money to spend! I think we should go out selling these fake drug packets in pairs, and I wanna be paired up with someone I can run faster than.
Oh, Tammi, your original post got my attention well enough.
I mean, WTF?!?!? Let’s seal the border and send these people back to their place of origin. Let the other countries deal with drugs. I’m sorry, but telling a multi-billion dollar manufacturer that they have to change their design because it looks like cocaine? Did they ever think that the jerk drug dealers may have deliberately designed those things to look like candy or mouth freshener??? That drugs don’t come in nice, neat, labelled packets: “This is cocaine. Take with food, no more than twice a day. See a doctor if dizziness or heart palpitations develop.” It’s freakin DRUGS
Hi Bridget,
Yes. We are certainly on the same page with this. And I, will do my best, at least through the Christmas season, not to drag chocolate into these discussions in such a negative matter.
I think that’s just too upsetting.
I will use one of Tieki Rae’s favorite candies as an example. Her favorite candy is called rock candy, and if you click on it, you’ll see it resembles crystal meth. I never once contacted the rock candy manufacturers asking them to change the makeup of their candy or packaging. Instead, I just didn’t keep packages of crystal meth laying around the house to confuse Tieki. I’m a pretty skilled parent if I do say so myself.
Let’s try and keep rock candy a secret from Kevin or he could get himself in all kinds of trouble.
“Breath mint… the other white powder.”
The evils of marketing exposed! Cold relief, cough suppressing, breath freshening, and other dissolving strips have become popular. Hershey is bad because they want to take advantage of a market trend and give consumers what they want.
That is the problem! Ignore the open borders! Ignore the immunity given to drug smugglers! Ignore the simple fact that the mint packaging is perfectly acceptable, the illegal drug is what is unacceptable!!!!!
Good one DI!
Exactly Sam! Let’s adjust everything so as not to get it confused with illegal drugs.
I think we can correlate it with gun control — making up a bunch of restrictive laws for people who actually obey the laws which in turn makes life easier for criminals who never honor laws to begin with.
I swear, that Scarecrow on the Wizard of Oz had more brains than liberals do.
Actually, I didn’t know what crystal meth looked like until you told me it resembled rock candy. It’s for naive people like me that all packagaing should be changed. (Eye roll.)
ROFL to the last two sentences. SO TRUE.
As for the chocolate analogies: here’s the deal. If you keep them to a minimum around the Christmas season, I’ll refrain from referring to the December days as “the holiday season.” :p
Done!