A new law aimed at keeping children safe will target colorful packaging used unlawfully for illegal cannabis products. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4 News on Dec. 27, 2023.
The new year brings new laws in the state of California. Among them is one that law enforcement says will protect children from getting their hands on illegal and potentially dangerous marijuana.
They say it is illegal cannabis that is not tested and could contain pesticides or other chemicals.
On a recent trip to Los Angeles’ Toy District in downtown LA, they say they found dozens of packaging with bright colors, cartoon characters -- some with references to famous movies, others with the likeness of well-known musicians. All of the items they found inside stores they visited, the California Department of Cannabis Control says, are illegal.
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“What we saw in the Toy District was an enormous amount of packaging that would never be allowed in the California legal cannabis market. It is extremely attractive to children. It carries the universal symbol of legal California cannabis, so it deceives consumers, and it is sold in bulk in the Toy District,” Nicole Elliott, California Department of Cannabis Control director, said.
The NBC4 I-Team was with the DCC enforcement team in November when they visited four locations in Los Angeles, they say, had been served with search warrants six months before and warned about “unlicensed commercial cannabis activity.”
They tell the NBC4 I-Team they returned to the locations because the businesses were back up and running.
Inside a location on South Inglewood Avenue, the DCC says they found products with similar packaging to what they witnessed during their visit to stores in the Toy District the day before.
“Starting in the new year, our department, law enforcement in general, is going to be able to seize that packaging and destroy it when it's found to not be used for lawful purposes,” Elliott said, referring to the recent passage of AB 1126.
“Now we're really focused on the product within that packaging. We can definitely seize packaging, but not in this sort of comprehensive way. So, this really makes it crystal clear that we have authority to seize when that universal symbol is on that packaging and it is not being used for lawful commercial purposes,” she added.
You can search for licensed cannabis businesses in your neighborhood here.
