The date rape cake?
Posted on 05/15/2011 4:16:47 PM PDT by billorites
Public health advocates and some mayors are sounding the alarm over Lazy Cakes, a brownie adorned with a lackadaisical cartoon character and laced with a powerful sleep aid that has sold millions nationwide.
“Children are attracted to brownies,” said Dr. Caroline Apovian, director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to put herbal things that are actually drugs in brownies or food items that are attractive to children. I think that’s heinous.”
One Lazy Cake, which is wrapped in plastic with a photo of a smiling cartoon brownie, contains 8 mg of melatonin, a sleep-inducing supplement not regulated by the federal government. Apovian said 10 mg of melatonin would cause an adult to abruptly fall asleep.
The brownies are being sold across the state and have drawn the ire of mayors in Fall River and New Bedford, who are calling for bans.
Lazy Cakes were selling yesterday for $2.49 each at a Dorchester Tedeschi food shop, where they were displayed next to oatmeal cookies and above Twix and Butterfinger candy bars.
The cartoon character Lazy Larry, used to market the “relaxation” brownies, is not geared toward children, said Lazy Cakes spokeswoman Laura Finlayson. The company has sold 2 million Lazy Cakes in the first six months on the market, she said.
“He’s a relaxed brownie. That was the visual representation of a relaxed brownie. That was the purpose of using him. We gave him a personality,” she said, adding that the brownies are labeled for adult use only. “They are not marketed to children.”
Fall River Mayor William Flanagan disagrees.
“It’s despicable,” said Flanagan, who drafted an ordinance to ban Lazy Cakes.
A concerned citizen first made him aware that the city’s 7-Eleven stores and bodegas were selling Lazy Cakes.
New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang also wants to ban Lazy Cakes.
“If you are going to have a product like this, you’ve got to have it carefully regulated and it can’t be available to children,” Lang said.
Earlier this year, a 2-year-old Tennessee boy was hospitalized after a relative gave him a portion of a Lazy Cake, according to news reports.
The uproar over Lazy Cakes comes on the heels of public outcry over the marketing of potentially harmful products to kids. The FDA last year forced stimulants to be removed from Four Loko, a fruity mix of alcohol and caffeine that was linked to deaths and illness.
The date rape cake?
I can see where that would be very tempting. I’ve often wished the children would switch off when the lights went out, like some of the herpets do.
You heard of these ?
I am an insomniac. I will have to try these out.
1st I’ve heard of them. Why can’t you just take a pill? Who wants the extra calories of a brownie?
I want some!
Doesn’t the caffeine in the chocolate offset the melatonin?
I smell a rat. It seems this is intended to be used as a rallying cry to lock down melatonin. Millions of adults safely avoid pharmacetical drugs by taking melatonin, which cannot be patented, and so they need a reason to have the FDA attack to save their profits. This seems to be it - it’s a set-up. And whatever legislation that it results in will be completely over the top, just like when they attacked tryptophan with hysterical claims of danger to make way for Prozac.
Mother’s little helper? Wow I hadn’t heard about these.
Why are they allowed to sell these things in the first place?
One of our pediatricians once recommended melatonin for one of our children. I can’t remember which pediatrician nor which child. lol
I guess the mayors of Fall River and New Bedford must be running surpluses and have near zero unemployment if they have time to focus on brownies.
These cakes are labeled “For Adults Only”, so the stores should know enough not to sell them to kids (or have legal departments advising them of that). Put them with the cigarettes so adults will have to ask for them. If they don’t want them, they won’t buy them. Instead, here comes Big Government to take that choice away from EVERYONE because some people won’t be able to handle purchasing brownies responsibly.
No, not until today.
The idea must be based on “magic brownies”.
The only candy I have a weakness for (and buy) is Haribo brand Gummy Bears.
Try a can of Bob Marley’s Mellow Moods, its the opposite of an energy drink and will help knock you out. Widely available.
Without having read the entire article, nor the replies, I can tell you that 20mg of melatonin doesn’t touch me. To say that 10mg will make an adult fall abruptly asleep is asinine.
Do you have a child who bounced off the walls in the middle of the night? Bill used to get up at 1:00 a.m. and jump on the trampoline, but you’d never know it now: he’s got the Teen Collapse.
I’ve taken valerian root, melatonin and so on. Good stuff, kids don’t need it.
Two - the doctor quoted is an idiot, hence the government job, as the adult dose ranges from 2 mg to 200 mg. There is no one dose in the literature as the effective range varies so much.
Three - melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that aids in regulating your sleep cycle and not one study has shown a lethal dose. There is minuscule danger here to kids or adults.
Go for it, but you might find it cheaper to buy melatonin in the supplement section of the pharmacy. Look for the pharmaceutical melatonin and NOT the organic or natural melatonin. There have been reported side effects from the impurities in the "natural" melatonin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.