The sign in the window says it all: This product may cause extreme relaxation and excessive use of the word “dude.” That sign hangs in the window of Expressions on Franklin Street, and it promotes a melatonin-laced brownie called Lazy Larry cakes. As the advertisement implies, the product is little more than a hash brownie mimic. But Lazy Larry has recklessly peddled this potent pastry as a dietary supplement, exploiting a loophole in the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on melatonin as a food additive. Just as these companies neglect to see brownies as a food, the stores selling them are neglecting to understand their potential harm.
They can right the situation by stripping the popular brownies from their store shelves until the FDA reaches a conclusive decision.
Last year, the FDA stepped in to regulate the melatonin-laced beverage Drank, and it has already threatened Lazy Larry with similar action. In a warning letter, the FDA notified the company that its snacks are dangerous and could be seized from store shelves. Melatonin can be purchased as a supplement but is not an approved food additive.
The FDA has not granted approval to Lazy Larry for snack production. The company itself has recommended that children refrain from using the products.
But that warning hasn’t impeded sales. Like many shops nationwide, Expressions is sold out of the melatonin brownies thanks to their growing popularity. The fans driving that demand have taken to Facebook and Twitter to endorse the brownies as an effective — and natural — munition against stress and sleep deprivation.
Medical experts haven’t been so cheery. They fear that pairing melatonin with food could lead to impaired driving, respiratory issues or indiscriminate consumption.
For the FDA, the controversy surrounding melatonin-laced brownies has sounded oddly familiar to a product with the opposite effect: Four Loko. In that case, the FDA forced Four Loko and other producers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages to no longer use caffeine as an ingredient.
As FDA spokesman Doug Karas told the St. Petersburg Times, “A dietary supplement would be a single swallow kind of thing, not a 20-ounce drink.”
A dietary supplement isn’t a brownie, either. The FDA should move quickly to ensure that these brownies don’t put anymore unsuspecting customers at risk. Until then, customers should know what they’re putting in their bodies and the risk it could pose to them and others.
