A sheriff’s department in Illinois is being mocked after warning that children may have received pot-infused Halloween candy with cannabis leaf wrappers. The suspicious trick-or-treat candy apparently is Japanese and marketed with a maple leaf.

Sgt. Gary Becket of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Office in north-central Illinois would not say Wednesday that the Crunch Choco Bar candies were subject to mistaken identification but suggested cautious reporting on the matter.

“I’m not making any official statement right now. A follow-up press release will be sent out once the final lab testing has been done,” Becket told U.S. News after the blog Dankspace and Jacob Sullum of Reason reported the apparent mix-up.

A maple leaf logo used on Iroha Kaede candy appears to match an image on "suspicious looking" sweets in Illinois. Screenshots

Becket said an initial press release, posted on Facebook with a warning to parents, "was an immediate alert sent out because of the nature of the day, which was Halloween."

The department reported that on Sunday, a day before the holiday, the town of Manlius had a trick-or-treat event and “[p]arents came forward with suspicious looking candy marked as Crunch Choco Bar, and the wrapper has small pictures of cannabis leaves.”

“The substance was field tested and was positive for containing cannabis,” the department’s initial press release said, requesting information from the public on the source of the candy. Many local news outlets reported on the release.

Becket would not say if officers had identified the person who gave away the treats and said he was not aware of reporting on the apparent mix-up.

“I caution you on reporting anything on this other than what was released already,” he said.

A promotion for the Crunch Choco Bar. Ad

The report came a week before five states consider ballot initiatives that would allow recreational marijuana markets for adults 21 and older, with several other states voting on medical marijuana. A key argument from opponents is that infused edibles would become more available and therefore more likely to fall into the wrong hands.

At least one group opposed to legalization embraced the initial press release as evidence that their fears may come true, pointing out that Illinois law allows for medical marijuana.

“The cruel and unfortunate incident highlights the very real dangers legal marijuana has on children. These children were intentionally targeted by adults that were not their parents with the malicious intent of poisoning them,” said the Drug Free America Foundation in a press release Tuesday.

“This incident is a clear cut example of how marijuana is a tangible danger to our children,” said Calvina Fay, the group’s executive director. “If marijuana becomes legal under the guise of medicine in the state of Florida we can expect a rise in incidents like this here. The legalization advocates can wish this away all they want but it is a reality and shame on them for pretending that the danger does not exist!”

The apparent error has been greeted with glee online.

“The field tester had probably just smoked some weed, hence the positive test,” a Facebook user joked in a comment posted beneath the press release. “Pot candy is expensive, Sheriff. People aren't going to give it away. Especially to kids.”

The blog Dankspace, which first noted the Japanese characters on the packaging and that the “cannabis leaves” may be maple leaves, called the initial sheriff’s department assertion “a load of crap created by propagandist[s] trying to bait you into their agenda.”

Sullum, following up on the Dankspace report for Reason, reported that the candy appear to be innocuous Japanese treats sold under the brand Iroha Kaede, linking to photos that appear to corroborate that identification.

Sullum points out that it generally takes a while for edibles to make someone high, meaning that “[e]ven assuming a kid eats the candy, the effects would not be apparent for an hour or two, so what's in it for the prankster?”