Marijuana advent calendar sales soar despite health warnings
published on November 26, 2017 by Geordon Omand, The Canadian Press in CTV News
ANCOUVER — A Vancouver cannabis company is scrambling to keep up with a flood of orders for marijuana-filled advent calendars, but the novel take on a popular Christmas tradition has some health experts ringing alarm bells.
Lorilee Fedler of Coast to Coast Medicinals said she’s been overwhelmed by the response since launching the holiday calendars earlier this month.
“We just wanted something fun and different for adults,” Fedler said, adding that she came up with the idea after seeing versions containing beer.
…
Mark Haden, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, said Canada needs to allow for access without endorsement when it comes to the marijuana industry, and allowing decorated, weed-filled calendars is a step in the wrong direction.
“We don’t want to criminalize it. We don’t want to promote it. We want to make it boring,” he said. “We do not make it boring with advent calendars.”
Haden also expressed concern over the risk of appealing to kids.
“It’s reasonable to assume that advent calendars will be opened by children,” he added. “That is not a good idea.”
Fedler said she chose to include warning labels on her product and avoided a child-friendly design in anticipation of the federal regulations.
“We didn’t make ours like the classic Santa or the reindeer or the snowman. We made ours like an ugly Christmas sweater,” Fedler said.
View the full article