"Relaxation Brownies" that contain melatonin are a dangerous "gateway drug" says mayor. - Polidicks

[release]FALL RIVER — Motivated by a single complaint, Mayor Will Flanagan is seeking to remove from store shelves a brand of brownie that contains a chemical potentially dangerous to children. Flanagan announced Wednesday that he will submit an ordinance to the City Council banning the sale of Lazy Cakes in city stores. He wants the brownies pulled because they contain melatonin, a legal substance used to regulate or induce sleep. Flanagan said he was concerned the product packaging would makes the brownies appealing to children, who could be harmed by the high concentration of melatonin. Flanagan said melatonin dosage recommendations for adults range from one to three milligrams to help regulate sleep and five to six milligrams to induce sleep. One brownie contains eight milligrams of melatonin, though the nutritional information lists the content as 4 milligrams of in each of two servings. “The product says it’s not for children’s use, but the psychedelic packaging and the cartoon character Larry Lazycakes on the package say otherwise,” Flanagan said. He added that the product’s website promotes drug culture, with puffs of smoke clouds in the design. The brownies carry a printed warning that they are for adults only, but Flanagan said the packaging appeals to children. He said the consumption of Lazy Cakes could serve as a gateway to illicit drug use. He called it “shameful” that a corporation would market such a product in a way that could entice children. “I’m putting the public on notice, and by drafting this ordinance hopefully we’ll ban the sale of this product in Fall River,” Flanagan said. Flanagan said his effort was prompted by a lone complaint from a city resident. He researched the product and learned Lazy Cakes were on sale at Bristol Community College. The school pulled the brownies after Flanagan called them. Lazy Cakes can also be found at the 7-Eleven on Milliken Boulevard, Flanagan said. There is no indication the product has been sold to children. In addition to the drafted ordinance, Flanagan is also issuing letters to Lazy Cakes parent company HBB, LLC and to the corporate offices of 7-Eleven to request the removal of Lazy Cakes from store shelves. “If kids start eating these brownies we could have a tragedy on our hands, and I don’t want to see it in my city,” Flanagan wrote in the letter to HBB, LLC. Flanagan's effort to ban Lazy Cakes follows on the heels on a recent city ordinance banning the sale of tobacco products at pharmacies. But the mayor said the ordinances are not intended to tell people what legal products they can purchase. “The health and safety of our children is always a priority in my administration,” Flanagan said. “I’m going to take proactive steps to remove those dangers from our children.” Those proactive steps, however, did not include keeping a watchful eye on one of the packaged brownies Flanagan displayed during his Wednesday afternoon press conference. At least 30 minutes after Flanagan concluded his announcement, the brownie sat unattended on a podium in the Fall River Room at Government Center, free for the taking. Email Will Richmond at [email]wrichmond@heraldnews.com[/email]. Copyright 2011 The Herald News. Some rights reserved Read more: [url]http://www.heraldnews.com/features/x1058164626/Flanagan-wants-Lazy-Cakes-off-Fall-River-store-shelves#ixzz1MHCNDjTu[/url] [/release] [url=http://www.heraldnews.com/topstories/x1058164626/Flanagan-wants-Lazy-Cakes-off-Fall-River-store-shelves]Source: The Herald News[/url] Up next, chocolate banned because it contains tryptophan (which is synthesized into melatonin by the human body)

[release][B]Motivated by a single complaint[/B], Mayor Will Flanagan is seeking to remove from store shelves a brand of brownie that contains a chemical potentially dangerous to children.[/release] Fucking stupid.

Actually heard about these from a few friends. Thought about buying one for my insomnia.

Why not just make it 18+ only? Completely banning it is fucking stupid if there isn't any danger to adults.

i've only seen them in head shops and campuses, how do kids get them? [QUOTE=slimd1995;29804746]Why not just make it 18+ only? Completely banning it is fucking stupid if there isn't any danger to adults.[/QUOTE] actually, i'm pretty sure they don't sell them to people under 18

[release] “The product says it’s not for children’s use, but the psychedelic packaging and the cartoon character Larry Lazycakes on the package say otherwise,” Flanagan said. He added that the product’s website promotes drug culture, with puffs of smoke clouds in the design. The brownies carry a printed warning that they are for adults only, but Flanagan said the packaging appeals to children. He said the consumption of Lazy Cakes could serve as a gateway to illicit drug use. He called it “shameful” that a corporation would market such a product in a way that could entice children. [/release] "Product only for adults." NO, NOT THE CHILDREN!

His intentions are good, but his methods are bad.

"contains a chemical potentially dangerous to children" Yes a chemical naturally created by the human body is deadly to children. So deadly it is able to be prescribed in much higher dosages mentioned in the article to both adults and children in the UK to help with sleep.

[QUOTE=Jsm;29804962] Yes a chemical naturally created by the human body is deadly to children. [/QUOTE] This is a stupid argument. The body synthesizes all sorts of crappy things which if ingested, can fuck you over really quickly.

[QUOTE=Kagrenak;29805064]This is a stupid argument. The body synthesizes all sorts of crappy things which if ingested, can fuck you over really quickly.[/QUOTE] Yeah it was a pretty bad argument, but in this case it has been proven to be safe to take.

[QUOTE=Vaught;29804813][release] He called it “shameful” that a corporation would market such a product in a way that could entice children. [/release][/QUOTE] i would show this guy a bunch of children's toys designed by mormons and film his reaction.

Wait a second, if kids cannot buy them, and they only harm kids, then where the hell is the problem here?

[QUOTE=Jsm;29805091]Yeah it was a pretty bad argument, but in this case it has been proven to be safe to take.[/QUOTE] Yeah I wasn't defending the mayor's stupid tirade, just commenting on your argument.

Putting a product in a store seems to be "marketing it to children" these days.

[QUOTE=Kagrenak;29805120]Yeah I wasn't defending the mayor's stupid tirade, just commenting on your argument.[/QUOTE] Ah OK. [editline]14th May 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=slimd1995;29805112]Wait a second, if kids cannot buy them, and they only harm kids, then where the hell is the problem here?[/QUOTE] I bet you this mayor is currently unpopular and wants to be seen "thinking about the children".

[QUOTE=slimd1995;29804746]Why not just make it 18+ only? Completely banning it is fucking stupid if there isn't any danger to adults.[/QUOTE] Because, it's an entirely harmless product? There's no danger to children either. They simply claim that it's probably a gateway drug.

Oh who gives a fuck. Read the warning on the wrapper and move on with your day, no need to ban anything. Stupid twats think they can decide what people do with their own bodies.

It's up to the fucking parents to stop their kids from getting this. What the fuck, 8 year olds coming into 7/11s and buying shit alone? Do your goddamn job parents.

Gateway drug? What a load of shit.

[QUOTE=Micr0;29805183]Oh who gives a fuck. Read the warning on the wrapper and move on with your day, no need to ban anything. Stupid twats think they can decide what people do with their own bodies.[/QUOTE] This. If people want to sell stuff with "dietary supplements" worked into them they should just have to stick the appropriate warnings on it. The funny thing about this is, if they were banned children could just go buy melatonin on its own.

[QUOTE=Kagrenak;29805064]This is a stupid argument. The body synthesizes all sorts of crappy things which if ingested, can fuck you over really quickly.[/QUOTE] You can get it from fucking CHOCOLATE for fucks sake.

Melatonin? They're like sleeping pills. Harmful to kids? As long as you're not a shitty parent and end up letting them eat a dozen of them at once than I'm sure they'd be fine. Jesus. I thought Melatonin stimulated natural chemicals in your brain to help you sleep instead of just giving you a drug induced sleepiness, in which case I don't see how they can be -that- harmful.

Well this seems like a pretty fucking huge knee-jerk reaction to a single complaint.

[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;29805294]Melatonin? They're like sleeping pills. Harmful to kids? As long as you're not a shitty parent and end up letting them eat a dozen of them at once than I'm sure they'd be fine. Jesus. I thought Melatonin stimulated natural chemicals in your brain to help you sleep instead of just giving you a drug induced sleepiness, in which case I don't see how they can be -that- harmful.[/QUOTE] It's a neurohormone, and interacts with melatonin receptors Sleeping pills do similar things with other various types of receptors. Melatonin receptors are less neurologically active than some other forms and aren't as powerful, but there's no intrinsic "natural goodness" of supplementing melatonin over taking eszopiclone or something. In fact, for actual insomnia, melatonin isn't useful; it's clinical usage is in circadian rhythm disorders.

Isn't melatonin found in turkey or something?

[QUOTE=Smug Bastard;29805486]Isn't melatonin found in turkey or something?[/QUOTE] No that's tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid.

I take melatonin often and there is nothing wrong with me. I know several doctors that said nothing about me and my dad taking it every night. Some even said they've tried it.

This is completely ridiculous unless the melatonin is actually harmful. I definitely take melatonin to help me change shifts on the fly (military) and it's really helpful when you need to sleep normal one day, and the next you're trying to sleep at 1 in the afternoon. It always either helped me fall asleep, or at least feel like I slept while I try to sleep completely out of phase the majority of the world. I hate people like this.. cause a year or two down the road you have a ton of people blabbering about how ____ is bad and this guy is the one who starts it. [editline]13th May 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Smug Bastard;29805486]Isn't melatonin found in turkey or something?[/QUOTE] The stuff in turkey that makes you sleepy after you eat it is tryptophan, and that's metabolized into [B]melatonin[/B] when you eat it, and the melatonin runs it's course. Many lucid dreamers look towards foods like that to help boost the deepness of their sleep and such. Scientific wiki answer: The resulting increased ratio of tryptophan to large neutral amino acids in the blood reduces competition at the large neutral amino acid transporter resulting in the [B]uptake of tryptophan across the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system (CNS).[/B] [B]Once inside the CNS, tryptophan is converted into serotonin[/B] in the raphe nuclei by the normal enzymatic pathway.The[B] resultant serotonin is further metabolised into melatonin by the pineal gland[/B]. Hence, this data suggest that "feast-induced drowsiness", and in particular, the common post-Christmas and North American post-Thanksgiving dinner drowsiness, may be the result of a heavy meal rich in carbohydrates which, via an indirect mechanism,[B] increases the production of sleep-promoting melatonin in the brain[/B]

they need to stop banning things that are minutely dangerous

I eat 4 a day. Bite me "mayor". Thank dog I don't live there... And yes, I know that 4, is 8 times the recommended amount, but I'm just saying, this is retarded.