Pubdate: Sat, 01 Dec 2007
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2007 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Marc Levy, Associated Press Writer

POLICE: HERSHEY CANDY LOOKS LIKE DRUGS

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- New mint packets being sold by The Hershey Co. 
look nearly identical to the tiny heat-sealed bags used to sell 
illegal powdered drugs like crack, heroin and cocaine and glorify the 
drug trade, a Philadelphia police official said.

Ice Breakers Pacs, nickel-sized dissolvable pouches with a powdered 
sweetener inside, hit store shelves in November. The packets, which 
come in blue and orange plastic slide-up cases, are similar enough to 
drug packets that a child familiar with the candy could mistakenly 
swallow a heat-sealed bag of drugs, Philadelphia Police Chief 
Inspector William Blackburn told the Philadelphia Daily News for an 
article published Friday.

"It glorifies the drug trade," he said. "There's really no reason 
that a product like this should be on the shelf."

A spokesman for the company, based in Hershey, Pa., pointed out that 
each pouch - made by two dissolvable mint strips - bears the Ice Breakers logo.

"It is not intended to simulate anything," said spokesman Kirk Saville.

Saville would not directly respond to questions about whether Hershey 
has plans to change the product's appearance or whether anyone in law 
enforcement or inside the company has previously raised a concern about it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom