The Hershey Co. has decided to pull from shelves its new Ice Breakers Pacs – a breath mint in powder form that is packed inside a small blue dissolvable package that, it so happens, looks a lot like a small nickel bag of cocaine.
The company introduced the product at an industry trade show last fall, and it quickly caught the attention of drug officers afraid it might make their job on the street a tad more difficult. “Obviously, it’s going to require law enforcement to do a lot of field-testing on candy,” Sioux City, Iowa, police Lt. Marti Reilly told MSNBC in December. “When you see it in the street, you wouldn’t know it from a controlled substance because it’s packaged an awful lot like [drugs].” Still, initially, Hershey rejected such claims, pointing out in a press statement that the product is “clearly labeled” as candy, and branded as an “Ice Breakers item.” Still, on Jan. 24, the company revealed in an earnings-report conference call that it would cease production, the Associated Press reported, in an effort to be “sensitive” to law enforcement “viewpoints.”
This article appears in January 25 • 2008.