Chief’s Email – Lazy Cakes

Lazy-CakesI usually do not follow up with another Chief’s Email until a bit of time has passed since the previous one, but there are 2 things out there that you need to know about and so I thought I would send one out today. One serves as a reminder about our attempts to help the good people in Joplin, Missouri - my office is filling up with all those items they are in need of - keep it coming!

The other is to alert you of yet another potential threat facing your kids (Lazy Cakes)- and it is perfectly legal!

First of all, as a reminder, our Joplin, Missouri initiative is going very well, thank you to all who have brought in coolers, paper goods, food items and all of the other items on the list. I have attached the recent email that outlines what the folks in Joplin need and I remind you that we need to get these things together quickly, they leave for Missouri on Saturday. You are invited to bring those items to the Portage Police Department between the hours of 8am-11pm and we will take it from there. Find out more about what needs to be filled by clicking here.

Lazy Cakes

Recently we dealt with K2 or Spice, that so called incense that provided users with the same effects of the THC found in marijuana. Then it was the “Bath Salts”, they just happened to look a lot like cocaine and when ingested, mimic the effects as well. Well just the other day, a package containing a brownie showed up on my kitchen table, my wife had picked it up at our local convenient store. They were at one time being sold from the top of the counter for all to see, now you need to ask for them and they are now retrieved from a shelf that is out of sight from the general public. Hmmm, that is odd!

They are called a variety of names, but the brownie I have is called “Lazy Cakes” and it looks just like a regular brownie. If you read the ingredients you will find they are made of much the same things that your Mom’s brownies are made of, except these contain a bit of melatonin- that is the stuff that some use to help fall asleep. They are clearly labeled for adults only, problem is they are in a brownie and kids like brownies and if they eat too many of these things, they may have a few issues.

I visited the Fox News site in Memphis and read of an article involving a 15 year old Memphis kid who bought a package, ate some of it and then gave some to his 2 year old nephew. The article notes that the kid was lucky to wake back up and according to doctors that were interviewed for the story, they reported that giving this product to a child could “prove deadly” as it “can cause respiratory depression and death”. According to Ann Payne Johnson with Baptist Memorial Health Care, the Melatonin present in these brownies is 4 times the adult dosage. The problem is when you put that in a brownie, it attracts kids and now we have kids taking in an adult dose.

city_of_portageI visited the National Public Radio’s site today (http://www.npr.org/2011/03/04/134259889/lazy-cakes-leave-you-well-lazy) and they report that it has been 5 months since these brownies hit the market. They are available in two dozen states and sales are doubling every month. NPR reports that in 2009, there were about 5,000 melatonin related calls to poison control centers, most involving small children. None of them died, but the makers of the brownies are obviously aware of the potential risk, they include a notice on the packaging that these things are not for kids.

Watch for them and please take a moment to talk to your kids about these and the possible negative effects they may have on younger people. They are perfectly legal, that does not mean they are healthy for young kids.

Remember, if it does not seem right, it probably is not right. Call the police and let us figure it out, that is what we get paid to do.

Thank you and be safe