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It may take a ban on child-enticing edibles like gummy bears to swing some of the votes to finally pass a law legalizing marijuana in New Jersey.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said when he tried whipping up support for a legalization bill in the spring, one of the lesser-known concerns his colleagues mentioned was the availability of edible products resembling candy and other sweets. They seem too enticing for kids.

When Sweeney gave it some thought, he said it troubled him, too.

“It looks like a candy but it’s a drug,” said Sweeney, one of the sponsors of the adult-use legislation and New Jersey’s most powerful state lawmaker.

“I saw what Colorado did with the packaging — making it very nondescript and unattractive to kids,” said Sweeney, who visited that state about two years ago to examine the legal market. “But it’s still a candy.”

Sweeney abandoned the effort to pass a legalization bill in May after failing to convince his colleagues, some of them older and less willing to reconsider their long-held opposition. He proposed putting the matter to a public referendum that would amend the state constitution in November 2020.

While the state Legislature is on a pre-election break, Sweeney has recently said he will confer with state Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, the bill’s prime sponsor, and try to push the bill again later this year.

He said he would take cues from the 11 states and the District of Columbia where weed is legal.

“We have some time,” he said.

Nearly every state requires edibles to be sold in child-resistant, opaque packaging, according to a University of Washington School of Law study and the various state’s websites.

Since October 2017, cannabis manufacturers have been prohibited from producing edibles shaped like people, animals and fruit. California followed suit in 2018.

The early states that legalized weed were compelled to act after the Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 2016 there had been a fivefold increase in the number of children under 10 who ingested marijuana and were treated at a children’s hospital and regional poison center in Colorado from 2009 to 2015, a year after weed was legalized.

The University of Washington Law School report examined what children find appealing about food and how edible makers can steer clear of these features. Kids are attracted to red, orange, yellow, or green foods that smell sweet, such as apples, bananas, cinnamon, lemon, licorice, mint, pineapples, and roses. Odors and tastes that repelled them? Fish, clove, coffee, and garlic.

Two of New Jersey’s six medical marijuana cultivators produce edibles but the products have been limited to lozenges and tinctures because until recently, only minors were permitted to consume edibles under Gov. Chris Christie-era restriction reversed by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat.

Scutari said he’s willing to discuss any strategy to secure 21 yes votes in the 40-member upper house. But at the moment, he said he is not feeling optimistic.

“I’m not getting my hopes up. Probably the best chance to pass it is the ballot question,” Scutari said.

A version of this story first appeared in the NJ Cannabis Insider.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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