MISHAWAKA, Indiana — The name sounds like "lollipops," but the product is a "Lollipipe." It's a fruit-flavored candy that is fully edible, but in the shape of a drug pipe.The packaging touts how it won't melt, even when the pipe is lit. The product has been sold at some 7-Eleven stores in Mishawaka and South Bend — that is up until Friday afternoon. That's when corporate officials out of 7-Eleven's Dallas office mandated that all Indiana franchisees pull the product.
John Ray owns the Mishawaka store at 601 N. Main Street that stocked it. He says he was unaware the product was even being sold in his store. Upon learning of it, he had store employees remove it, even before the corporate edict came down.
"I'll be honest with you, I tend not to get involved with those, the K2 stuff, Mr. Smiley, that kind of stuff. I turned that one down and never got involved with that one. Obviously, this is something that has slipped by me," Ray said.
The 7-Eleven store on Logan Street and Jefferson in South Bend was out of the product Friday, but an employee said more would be coming in next week. That statement was made prior to the corporate Friday afternoon crackdown.
"We think it harms our image," said Margaret Chabris, corporate spokeswoman for 7-Eleven.
"Franchisees can order products, but they need to be products within the scope of the 7-Eleven image, Chabris added.
Joan Horvath spotted the product about a week ago. She says it was being sold as a point of purchase item at the cash register at the 7-Eleven she frequents.
"The more I look at it, it's a drug paraphernalia item that is candy. I'm afraid of little kids getting their hands on this," Horvath said.
"They took candy cigarettes off the market, but they put out drug paraphernalia for kids to eat?" questions Horvath.
"It appalls me. I can't believe this is in a convenience store. I don't understand why anybody would even make this," Horvath said of the company Kzee Novelty Products, LLC, out of Berkeley, California.
The company behind the Lollipipe maintains a Facebook page in which friends of the site post openly, discussing the use of the product when it comes to drugs. The company's website, www.lollipipe.com, is currently not accessible.
Many in Michiana were unaware the product even existed.
"I haven't seen this. This is new," was the reaction of Lt. Tim Williams, a DARE officer with the Mishawaka Police Department.
"Any kind of candy that would illustrate or be a likeness of anything we're teaching them not to do, like smoking cigarettes or drugs, I'd say something needs to be done about it. This influences our children and what they want to do," said Williams.
Jill Sabo, who is a tobacco education coordinator with St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, says she had not heard of this product before either.
"It looks like something you would smoke hash in," Sabo commented.
"I don't know if they're going to put illegal drugs in here or tobacco, but it really doesn't matter. It is still dangerous," said Sabo, who believes the product's packaging and flavors make it attractive to children.
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