Lazy Cakes

southsiderosie · 16-05-2011 12:57am #1

From today's NY Times:

Remember melatonin? In the 1990s, this over-the-counter dietary supplement was all the rage among frequent fliers, promoted as the miracle cure for jet lag. Now it is back in vogue, this time as a prominent ingredient in at least a half-dozen baked goods that flagrantly mimic the soothing effects of hash brownies — and do so legally. At least for now.

With names like Lazy Cakes, Kush Cakes and Lulla Pies, these products are sold online and at stores like 7-Eleven, Walgreens, smoke shops and even at the Harvard Square Coop, the university’s student bookstore, for roughly $3 to $4 each. (A bottle of 60 8-milligram melatonin tablets costs about $11.) At some places, the drug-packed desserts can be paid for with food stamps.

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“It’s a colossally bad idea to put melatonin in food,” Dr. Czeisler said. “It should not be permitted by the F.D.A.”

Technically, it is not. Stephanie Yao, a spokeswoman at the F.D.A., wrote in an e-mail that any item that uses melatonin “as an additive may be subject to regulatory action.”

That is why the makers of these new baked goods label them “Not for food use.” They want them to be considered dietary supplements, which do not need the F.D.A.’s premarket approval and are not required to be proved safe or effective.

“It sounds to me like they are trying to claim that the entire brownie is like a tablet, which is, of course, preposterous,” Dr. Czeisler said.

Tim Barham, the vice president of HBB, the maker of Lazy Cakes, said, “We look at the brownie as a supplement.”

News reports have classified Lazy Cakes as dietary supplements, but last month, Douglas Karas, an F.D.A. spokesman, said in an e-mail that the agency “has not made a determination on Lazy Cakes’ status as either a food or a dietary supplement.”

Can we just legalize pot and get it over with?