Attorney General joins bipartisan multi-state letter urging Congress to protect children and take action on THC copycat products

June 22, 2022

Attorney General Alan Wilson today joined a bipartisan letter to Congress, signed by 22 other attorneys general, urging them to take action regarding copycat THC edibles. These products are designed to look like popular snack items and have increased accidental THC consumption in children.

On June 16, the FDA issued a warning stating that between January 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022, National Poison Control Centers received 10,448 single substance exposure cases involving only edible products containing THC. Of these cases, 77% involved patients 19 years of age or younger.

Widely available and easily mistaken for name-brand snacks such as Oreo cookies, Doritos chips, Cheetos, NERDs, and more, THC copycat products often are unintentionally given to children or mistaken by children for the brand name snack products, resulting in unsuspecting children ingesting large amounts of THC.

“Regardless of how you feel about marijuana and its legalization, I think everyone agrees that we need to protect our children from being exposed to THC,” Attorney General Wilson said. “The packaging and names of these copycat products make them very attractive to children, and therefore very dangerous.”

The attorneys general say that while they do not all agree on the best regulatory scheme for cannabis and THC generally, they all agree on one thing: copycat THC edibles pose a grave risk to the health, safety, and welfare of our children.

Congress should immediately enact legislation authorizing trademark holders of well-known and trusted consumer packaged goods to hold accountable those malicious actors who are marketing illicit copycat THC edibles to children.

The letter was led by Attorneys General Jason Miyares of Virginia and Aaron Ford of Nevada. Attorneys General from Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Utah, and Washington signed the letter. 

Read the letter HERE.