Pill-pack lollies accused of making drugs attractive to children
Claire Weaver
January 05, 2008 11:00pm
A COMPANY that manufactures lollies in pharmaceutical-style pill packaging has been accused of making drugs attractive to children.
The blister strips of 24 multi-coloured lollies are being sold online as a promotion, with a minimum order of 3000.
But drug and parenting groups fear the gimmick sends a dangerous message to children, who can confuse brightly-coloured pills for lollies.
Their warning comes less than three months after three New South Wales children were hospitalised after swallowing ecstasy pills they had mistaken for lollies.
In the "medication" blister strips, sold by Sydney-based promotions firm Sense2, the lollies, which resemble a packet of pills, are marketed as a mini Advent calendar.
Paul Dillon of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia said the product provided a link between lollies and medication.
"Anything that reinforces that whole notion of lollies being a form of medication is not a good thing," he said.
Claudia Keech, chief executive officer of website motherInc.com.au, said packaging sweets in blister packs was "playing with fire".
"There are a lot of clever ideas in marketing sweets for clients these days but something that resembles medication is not a smart idea at all," she said.
"It's confusing to the logic of a child if it happens to be left around – don't go there."
In the NSW incident in October, an 11-year-old girl and two 10-year-old boys were taken to Shellharbour Hospital on NSW's south coast suffering dizziness and blurred vision after taking three pills during their lunch break at Windang Public School.
The girl had apparently brought the pills – believed to be ecstasy – to school to share after finding them in her teenage brother's bag and mistaking them for lollies.
In a similar incident, the daughter of actor Jude Law and ex-wife Sadie Frost was hospitalised after swallowing part of an ecstasy pill she picked up from the floor at a children's party in 2002.
Sense2 did not return calls from The Sunday Mail.
