Are The Weed Vans In NYC Legit?

If you’ve spent any time in New York City over the last few years, you’ve probably noticed bright green vans selling weed lollipops on the side of the road. And you’ve probably wondered whether or not they’re legit. Here’s what’s really going on with the weed vans in NYC.

Are The Weed Vans In NYC Really Selling Cannabis?

If all you had to go on was the vans themselves, you’d probably be convinced they were selling real edibles. That’s because every van is covered in bright green paint and plastered with huge images of cannabis leaves, cannabis buds, and lollipops. To top it all off, the names of well-known strains are painted all over the vehicles.

Even a quick glance at one of these vans would lead you to conclude they must really be selling lollipops made out of those strains. That’s clearly what the vans are trying to communicate.

As it turns out, it’s all a mirage. It’s just the image of weed without any actual weed. Unfortunately for cannabis fans, there is no THC in the lollipops these vans are selling.

Weed World Candies

The weed vans in NYC are run by a company called Weed World Candies. Along with its fleet of weed vans in NYC, the company has at various times operated in New Orleans, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami.

While the company’s branding is obviously dedicated to making it look like they’re selling edibles, they are not. Instead, they’re basically selling regular lollipops named after different strains of weed.

Weed World Candies operates at the edge of weed’s legal gray zone. On the one hand, they are not afraid to make it look like they’re selling weed. This typically raises a lot of questions. For example, when they first rolled into NYC back in 2013, they created a lot of confusion. Nobody knew if they were selling cannabis or not.

At one point, NYPD tested the lollipops. They concluded that there was no weed in them. But that didn’t keep the weed vans in NYC out of trouble. Cops in Soho arrested three Weed World Candies employees on misdemeanor charges of selling food without a permit.

Despite all the confusion, since there’s no actual THC in their products, Weed World Candies can’t get arrested for breaking weed laws. Of course, that also means that their candies won’t get you high.

So What’s In The Lollipops?

At this point, it’s clear what’s not in Weed World Candies’ lollipops. But what is in them? There is actually some confusion on this point. And a lot of that confusion comes from Weed World Candies itself.

The company’s website doesn’t say anything about what’s in the lollipops. But employees working out of the vans have said all sorts of things—very often, contradictory things.

At one point, employees told customers that the candy was made with “hemp oil.” They claimed that although the oil was legal, it would still interact with your body to produce some sort of effects.

Other times, the story was a little bit different. Apparently, one of the weed vans in NYC tells people that there are only trace amounts of THC in the lollipops. Not enough to be illegal, but still enough to produce an effect. This claim is obviously not true, since all forms of recreational cannabis are illegal in New York.

In what appears to be the most recent iteration of Weed World’s shifting explanations, one worker said that although the lollipops don’t have any THC, they do have enough CBD to produce some effects. Either way, these things will not get you high, and they are not legit weed edibles.

Final Hit: Are The Weed Vans In NYC Legit?

At the end of the day, although the weed vans in NYC aren’t selling any actual weed, they are still engaged with the cannabis scene. Here’s how the company describes itself on its home page: “Weed World Candies launched in 1999 with the goal to get Marijuana & Hemp legalized and industrialized. We tour the country in a fleet of ‘loud’ vehicles promoting the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana.”

In the end, maybe the only thing the weed vans in NYC contribute is an effort to make cannabis more visible—even if they’re doing it in a strange, unexpected, and sometimes confusing way.