FOOD PRODUCTS WITH A "KICK"-THE NEW TREND!

Will any parent like a soft drink which contains an intoxicating ingredient like ethyl alcohol offered to its children, though alcoholic beverages are sold in the open market to adult population in almost all countries? Alcohol is a dangerous substance that can affect the human health, like tobacco but world has not invented any mechanism to stop people from consuming it. The most practical way was to make it costlier year after year through increased fiscal levies though this does not deter those who "treasure" their drinks! On a similar way drugs or opiates including marijuana are not considered good for human health but till to date no country has been able to completely eliminate these substances from their countries. In fact many countries in the West are talking of legalizing the selling of some of these substances taking umbrage under the constitutional right of a citizen to consume what he or wants! Latest twist to this drama is the brazen attempts by a few food industry players in the US to use marijuana as an ingredient in snack products which, if reports are to be believed, has become an instant hit with youngsters and kids! Here is a take on this sordid development which needs to be condemned and resisted. 

"All day long, customers at LoDo Wellness Center, one of Colorado's new recreational marijuana stores, reach into the refrigerator and pull out tasty ways to get high. They buy sparkling peach and mandarin elixirs, watermelon Dew Drops, and sleek silver bags of chocolate truffles, each one packed with marijuana's potent punch. "The stuff just flies off the shelves," said Linda Andrews, the store's owner. As marijuana tiptoes further toward the legal mainstream, marijuana-infused snacks have become a booming business, with varieties ranging from chocolate-peppermint Mile candies infused with hash oil. Retail shops see them as a nonthreatening way into the shallow end of the marijuana pool, ideal for older customers, tourists staying in smoke-free hotels or anyone who wants the effect without the smoke and coughing. But the popularity of edible marijuana has alarmed parents' groups, schools and some doctors, who say the highly concentrated snacks are increasingly landing in the hands of teenagers looking for a sweet, discreet high, or of children too young to know the difference between pot brownies and regular ones."

One wonders what the hallowed safety agency in that country, FDA is doing to control such undesirable activities by a misguided section of the industry by indulging in such practices to make a fast buck putting the lives of people at great anger. Is this not a sign of a decaying society where abortion is a taboo but gay marriage is a fashion? No wonder violence and gun culture are perceived as normal in this country. America provides an excellent example of a country being self-destroyed by enormous wealth and arrogance of power, looking down on other less fortunate nations of this world.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com