Stoners Must Boycott Hershey Chocolate Products

[Ganja VanDam]

STONERS MUST BOYCOTT HERSHEY CHOCOLATE PRODUCTS
by Marc Emery, Publisher, Cannabis Culture Magazine (21 May, 2007) This is what I wrote to the Hershey Chocolate Company at their website: https://www.hersheys.com/contactus/


To the Sirs & Madams at Hershey Chocolate, Our magazine is organizing a boycott of your extensive line of products because of a $100,000 lawsuit against KENNETH AFFOLTER by HERSHEY in regard to his now discontinued line of medical marijuana chocolates.

Since Mr. Affolter was unjustly sentenced to 5 years in jail for the cannabis chocolates, one might think that your corporate interests in the protection of your brand names, which Mr. Affolter used in mocking regard to his products, was upheld. However, you are persuing this man in what our magazine regards as cruel and unnecessary.

Until Hershey Chocolate stops this lawsuit, our magazine is advocating on myspace, youtube, and in our magazine, Cannabis Culture, a boycott of Hershey products.

I would be delighted to hear from you and any discussion which drops this lawsuit. I think it is safe to say that Hershey Chocolate is currently the choiuce of millions of potheads across North America. You enrage them with this lawsuit. They are consumers you should not consider lightly.

Sincerely,

Marc Emery
Editor
Cannabis Culture Magazine
www.cannabisculture.com
www.myspace.com/cannabisculturemagazine
------------------------------------------------------

MYSPACE STONERS: Please take note and avoid the following Hershey products in the marketplace.

If would be good if you sent an email at their website (see above) to Hershey stating you will not buy any of the following products until they withdraw the claim against KENNETH AFFOLTER.

Or call them at:
Hershey Chocolate's Toll free number:
1-800-468-1714
Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET

I have commissioned an article on KENNETH AFFOLTER for the July-August Cannabis Culture Magazine, his medical marijuana chocolate project was amazing in size, scope, ambition and successful ...until the DEA raid ruined the beautiful project.

Here is the link to the article whereby Hershey Chocolate said it was suing Kenneth Affolter for $100,000 for trademark violation
HERE

We will expand the boycott into the printed magazine if by the end of June the lawsuit against KENNETH AFFOLTER is not withdrawn.

DO NOT PURCHASE BUY OR CONSUME THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS by HERSHEY CHOLCOLATE. Please pass this list around.

Chocolate-based products:

The 5th Avenue candy bar, which contains a peanut-based mixture.
Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars, which are chocolate-coated bars containing a coconut based mixture on the inside.

Bar None are wafers with filling covered in milk chocolate, seen in some countries but not in the U.S.A., where Kit Kat is produced.

Cadbury's Creme Egg is a chocolate egg with creme in it, usually sold around Easter.
Cadbury's Caramello milk chocolate squares with creamy caramel.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar, plain milk chocolate.
Cadbury Fruit & Nut Chocolate Bar, milk chocolate with assorted fruits and nuts.
Cadbury Royal Dark Chocolate Bar, plain dark chocolate,milk.
Cadbury Roast Almond Chocolate Bar, milk chocolate with almonds.
Cherry Blossom is an individually packaged, 45g chocolate covered maraschino cherry and syrup. The chocolate mixture has coconut and roasted peanut pieces incorporated into it.
Glosette(s), Raisins, Peanuts, Almonds.
Heath bar, a slab of toffee coated with chocolate.
Hershey's Bites, Flavors are Reese's peanut butter, Heath toffee, Kit Kat, mini Rolo, Mr. Goodbar, York Peppermint Pattie, white chocolate pretzel and dark chocolate pretzel.
Hershey's Cookies and Cream, a block of white chocolate with small pieces of cookie in it.
Hershey's Cookies and Mint,
Hershey's Kisses, small chocolate candies, similar in appearance to a very large chocolate chip.
Hershey's Miniatures, an assortment of Hershey's chocolate bars in miniature size. Created in 1939 and unchanged since, the original collection comprises Hershey's Chocolate, Special Dark chocolate, Krackel, and Mr. Goodbar varieties. A new collection, Nut Lovers, was introduced in 2004 and features both 4 kinds of chocolate and 4 kinds of nuts. Hershey's has also introduced Limited Edition varieties, including a holiday Mint Miniatures Collection.

Hershey's Pot of Gold, premium boxed chocolates in a variety of assortments: Almond Caramel Clusters, Caramel Assortment, Chocolate Assortment, Créme Assortment, Mint Assortment, Nut Assortment, Pecan Caramel Clusters, Premium Assortment, Sugar Free and Truffle Assortment.
Hershey's Sticks, individually wrapped chocolate sticks packaged and sold by the box. There are four flavors: Milk Chocolate, Caramel Filled Milk Chocolate, Rich Dark Chocolate and Mint Milk Chocolate.

Hershey's Kissables, miniature Hershey's Kisses coated with a colorful candy shell.
Kit Kat, made by Nestlé except in the United States, are chocolate coated wafer bars.
Krackel, a chocolate bar containing crisped rice
Milk Duds, small bits of caramel covered in milk chocolate. Milk Duds are commonly sold in American movie theaters as a snack.
Mr. Goodbar, a chocolate bar containing peanuts
Oh Henry!, Popular Canadian version of the candy currently made in the United States by Nestlé.
Hershey's Pops are bags of original Hershey's chocolates in the half the size and all the shape of a golf ball. They've become a common treat in movie theaters.
Reese's Fast Break, creamy peanut butter and nougat covered in milk chocolate.
Reese's Nutrageous, creamy peanut butter, caramel and roasted peanuts covered in milk chocolate.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, possibly one of Hershey's best-known products due to long-running massive advertising campaigns.
Reese's Pieces are small peanut-butter candies.
ReeseSticks, peanut butter filled wafers covered in milk chocolate. Sold in packages of two sticks.
Rolo, chocolate-covered caramels
Skor, a candy bar containing toffee
Swoops, chocolate shaped in slices, like potato chips. Swoops come in the following varieties: Hershey's Milk Chocolate, Almond Joy, Reese's Peanut Butter, York Peppermint Pattie, White Chocolate Reeses, and Toffee and Almond. Limited edition varieties include White Chocolate Peppermint (available around Christmas), Special Dark with Almonds and Strawberries & Creme.
Hershey's S'mores is a s'more in candy-bar form
Hershey's Shell Topping, a chocolate syrup that hardens when poured on cold foods, such as ice cream.
Take 5 (known as Max 5 in Canada), a candy bar with pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter, and chocolate.

WHATCHAMACALLIT is a peanut-flavored crisp with a layer of caramel and a milk chocolate coating
Whoppers, chocolate covered malted milk balls.
York Peppermint Pattie, a patty of peppermint flavored filling coated with dark chocolate
MARAH'S BUTT,


Non-Chocolate
Bubble Yum bubble gum brand
Ice Breakers chewing gum and mints
Jolly Rancher hard fruit candy, lollipops, and flavored soda.
Koolerz chewing gum,
PayDay candy bar,
Zagnut candy bar,

Other
Care-Free sugarless gum.
CareFree Koolerz mint based gum in various flavors made with Xylitol.
Good & Plenty, white and purplish-red pill shaped licorice candies.

Hershey's Brownies and Reese's Brownies, brownies containing Hershey's chocolate chips or Reese's peanut butter chips with icing on top.
Hershey's Cookies, a chocolate cookie with toppings and covered in chocolate

Really Nuts, snack nuts and trail mixes. Available in the following flavors: Reese's Roasted Peanuts, Reese's Honey Glazed Peanuts, Hershey's Chocolate Cocoa Peanuts, Mauna Loa Cashew Nuts, Hershey's Trail Mix, Reese's Trail Mix and Mauna Loa Trail Mix.

Snack Barz, candy bars similar to rice krispie treats.
Sweet 'n Salty Granola Bars, granola bars combined with other Hershey's and Reese's ingredients.

Twizzlers, artificially flavored licorice sticks in various flavors. raisins, peanuts or almonds.</B>
Heath bar, a slab of toffee coated with chocolate.
Hershey's Bites, Flavors are Reese's peanut butter, Heath toffee, Kit Kat, mini Rolo, Mr. Goodbar, York Peppermint Pattie, white chocolate pretzel and dark chocolate pretzel.
Hershey's Cookies and Cream, a block of white chocolate with small pieces of cookie in it.
Hershey's Cookies and Mint,
Hershey's Kisses, small chocolate candies, similar in appearance to a very large chocolate chip.
Hershey's Miniatures, an assortment of Hershey's chocolate bars in miniature size. Created in 1939 and unchanged since, the original collection comprises Hershey's Chocolate, Special Dark chocolate, Krackel, and Mr. Goodbar varieties. A new collection, Nut Lovers, was introduced in 2004 and features both 4 kinds of chocolate and 4 kinds of nuts. Hershey's has also introduced Limited Edition varieties, including a holiday Mint Miniatures Collection.

Hershey's Pot of Gold, premium boxed chocolates in a variety of assortments: Almond Caramel Clusters, Caramel Assortment, Chocolate Assortment, Créme Assortment, Mint Assortment, Nut Assortment, Pecan Caramel Clusters, Premium Assortment, Sugar Free and Truffle Assortment.
Hershey's Sticks, individually wrapped chocolate sticks packaged and sold by the box. There are four flavors: Milk Chocolate, Caramel Filled Milk Chocolate, Rich Dark Chocolate and Mint Milk Chocolate.

Hershey's Kissables, miniature Hershey's Kisses coated with a colorful candy shell.
Kit Kat, made by Nestlé except in the United States, are chocolate coated wafer bars.
Krackel, a chocolate bar containing crisped rice
Milk Duds, small bits of caramel covered in milk chocolate. Milk Duds are commonly sold in American movie theaters as a snack.
Mr. Goodbar, a chocolate bar containing peanuts
Oh Henry!, Popular Canadian version of the candy currently made in the United States by Nestlé.
Hershey's Pops are bags of original Hershey's chocolates in the half the size and all the shape of a golf ball. They've become a common treat in movie theaters.
Reese's Fast Break, creamy peanut butter and nougat covered in milk chocolate.
Reese's Nutrageous, creamy peanut butter, caramel and roasted peanuts covered in milk chocolate.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, possibly one of Hershey's best-known products due to long-running massive advertising campaigns.
Reese's Pieces are small peanut-butter candies.
ReeseSticks, peanut butter filled wafers covered in milk chocolate. Sold in packages of two sticks.
Rolo, chocolate-covered caramels
Skor, a candy bar containing toffee
Swoops, chocolate shaped in slices, like potato chips. Swoops come in the following varieties: Hershey's Milk Chocolate, Almond Joy, Reese's Peanut Butter, York Peppermint Pattie, White Chocolate Reeses, and Toffee and Almond. Limited edition varieties include White Chocolate Peppermint (available around Christmas), Special Dark with Almonds and Strawberries & Creme.
Hershey's S'mores is a s'more in candy-bar form
Hershey's Shell Topping, a chocolate syrup that hardens when poured on cold foods, such as ice cream.
Take 5 (known as Max 5 in Canada), a candy bar with pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter, and chocolate.

WHATCHAMACALLIT is a peanut-flavored crisp with a layer of caramel and a milk chocolate coating
Whoppers, chocolate covered malted milk balls.
York Peppermint Pattie, a patty of peppermint flavored filling coated with dark chocolate
MARAH'S BUTT,


Non-Chocolate
Bubble Yum bubble gum brand
Ice Breakers chewing gum and mints
Jolly Rancher hard fruit candy, lollipops, and flavored soda.
Koolerz chewing gum,
PayDay candy bar,
Zagnut candy bar,

Other
Care-Free sugarless gum.
CareFree Koolerz mint based gum in various flavors made with Xylitol.
Good & Plenty, white and purplish-red pill shaped licorice candies.

Hershey's Brownies and Reese's Brownies, brownies containing Hershey's chocolate chips or Reese's peanut butter chips with icing on top.
Hershey's Cookies, a chocolate cookie with toppings and covered in chocolate

Really Nuts, snack nuts and trail mixes. Available in the following flavors: Reese's Roasted Peanuts, Reese's Honey Glazed Peanuts, Hershey's Chocolate Cocoa Peanuts, Mauna Loa Cashew Nuts, Hershey's Trail Mix, Reese's Trail Mix and Mauna Loa Trail Mix.

Snack Barz, candy bars similar to rice krispie treats.
Sweet 'n Salty Granola Bars, granola bars combined with other Hershey's and Reese's ingredients.

Twizzlers, artificially flavored licorice sticks in various flavors.

[Ganja VanDam]

Man sentenced in pot candy case faces lawsuit from Hershey

Henry K. Lee
SF Chronicle
May 19, 2007

(05-19) 17:47 PDT LAFAYETTE -- A Lafayette man sentenced to 70 months in prison for making marijuana-laced candy and soft drinks and putting them in packaging resembling popular products faces a $100,000 federal trademark infringement lawsuit filed by the Hershey Co.

Kenneth Affolter, 40, admitted making pot-laced treats bearing names like Buddahfingers, Munchy Way, Puff-a-Mint Pattie and Toka-Cola under the product name Beyond Bomb.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Affolter also made Stoney Rancher hard candies, Rasta Reese's and Keef Kat, each wrapped in packaging similar to Hershey's Jolly Rancher, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat candies.

That didn't sit well with Hershey Co. and its trademark management subsidiary, Hershey Chocolate and Confectionary Corp. It filed a federal lawsuit on May 10 accusing Affolter of trademark infringement, trademark dilution -- undercutting the uniqueness of its products -- and unfair competition.

The suit, filed in San Jose, seeks $100,000 in damages.

Hershey spokesman Kirk Saville declined to comment on the suit, served on Affolter sat in Alameda County jail on Tuesday awaiting transfer to state prison.

"We are involved in some negotiations that may lead to a resolution of any issues regarding the Hershey lawsuit," said his lawyer, David M. Michael of San Francisco.

U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen on March 2 sentenced Affolter to 70 months in prison and fined him $150,000 for producing the pot-laced goodies. Authorities discovered the cache of candy on March 16, 2006, when they raided warehouses in Oakland and Emeryville operated by Affolter.

They also seized about $189,000 in cash, 29,000 marijuana plants, marijuana-growing equipment, three weapons, and an electronic money counter. But they might not have found everything.

According to a sentencing memorandum written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Wagner, Affolter, in a monitored telephone call he placed to his parents from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, boasted that the DEA "got a lot of money, but they didn't get it all!"

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

[urtrampsister]

I was thinking of this boycott since this morning when I posted the front page news on this. I'm gonna miss those candy bars but oh well.

[Subcool]

Mars makes great candy Too :)

Sub

If it wasn't for the munchies, these suckers would be broke.

Hershey's chocolate sucks anyhow. Get some Ghiradelli

[Geezeressa]

Ghiradelli's brownie mix....use cannabis oil.

[resinous]

Hershey plant to kiss Oakdale goodbye
Globalization hits Oakdale, Calif., as Hershey moves its factory to Mexico. Protesters ask, 'Who's next?'
By Steve Chawkins, Times Staff Writer
May 31, 2007



OAKDALE, CALIF. — On a warm May weekend in this Central Valley town, the irony was as thick as melting fudge.

As usual, the annual Chocolate Festival was drawing hordes of fun-seekers. However, they were streaming in by the thousands just two weeks after Hershey Co. — Oakdale's biggest employer and the nation's biggest candy company — announced its plan to close its sprawling plant, eliminate all 575 jobs and open a new factory in Monterrey, Mexico.

On one side of busy Yosemite Avenue, the festival drew children to games where they slathered their heads in syrup as their parents patiently stood in line to buy bookend-size chunks of toffee.

Across the street, to frequent, approving honks from motorists, protesters waved signs denouncing the company whose philanthropic, long-dead founder is still reverently referred to by some local employees as Mr. Hershey. One man wore a T-shirt that said on the front: "Where did 'the great American candy bar' go?" Asked for the answer, he whirled around to display the back: "Mexico!"

For Hershey workers in Oakdale, globalization is no longer just an abstraction. Like legions of other Americans, they suddenly face questions as immediate as how to make a living and as far-reaching as whether their 20th century manufacturing skills will count for much anywhere else. Production at the plant is to be phased out by the end of the year.

When she heard the news, Mabel McNaught, a school custodian, wondered how her family would recover. Her husband, Philip, 50, is a forklift driver at the plant, and she figures that finding another job nearby with similar pay and benefits won't be easy.

"I was devastated," she said. "I just started crying."

The sign she held as traffic snaked past the protest was cautionary: "Who's next?"

The 113-year-old company has described the plant shutdown as part of a "global supply-chain transformation." Some 3,000 of Hershey's 13,000 workers will lose their jobs, including as many as 900 in the company's hometown of Hershey, Pa., where the streetlights are shaped like Kisses. By 2010, Hershey says, the moves will save shareholders as much as $190 million annually.

"The financials are compelling," Chief Executive Richard H. Lenny told a meeting of market analysts in February, saying labor costs in Mexico are 10% of those in the United States. Asked about the negative publicity that would come with the plant closures, he said the decisions were "gut-wrenchingly difficult — but in the best interests of the business."

In a picturesque region dotted with dairy farms and almond groves, Hershey has been an Oakdale fixture since 1965. Over the years, the plant on the edge of town has churned out nut-studded chocolate bars and uncounted millions of chocolate Kisses.

Until 2001, thousands of tourists were shuttled to the low-slung factory to gaze upon immense, gently rocking vats of liquid chocolate and conveyor belts laden with Kisses. Hershey said the tours were discontinued because of security concerns after 9/11, but skeptics contended that the company simply wanted to save money.

At times, the community of 18,000 — the self-proclaimed Cowboy Capital of the World — is infused with the scent of chocolate, although it competes with the aroma of tomato sauce from the ConAgra processing plant down the road.

"Ah, if fumes could fill the belly," said 58-year-old Larry Hendrix, a lifelong Oakdale resident, dropping in at Oakdale Shoe Repair, where his friend Javier Melgoza uses vintage equipment to repair finely tooled cowboy boots.

Like many residents, the shoemaker, who once bartered his services for candy, questioned the company's motives.

"It has to come down to greed," Melgoza said. "I mean, Hershey's has it made, coast to coast, right?"

Not quite, according to industry observers. Earlier this month, the company lowered its projected 2007 earnings, citing high dairy prices. And, like other domestic candy companies, Hershey complains about government agricultural supports keeping the price of sugar at least double the level in foreign markets.

"The candy business has been laboring under this burden for a number of years," said Ray Jones, a director at Dechert-Hampe, a marketing consultant specializing in candy and confections.

In addition, Hershey has old plants that are tough to overhaul — "inefficient legacy infrastructure," in the words of Lenny, the chief executive. And it sees lucrative markets in places like China, where it has introduced green tea-flavored Kisses, and in Mexico, where it plans to feature "locally relevant nut flavors" in its Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

None of that is good news for Oakdale, Jones said. "Do you invest in revamping U.S. plants when you're faced with higher sugar prices, higher labor costs and a more global business? It's not a new story, but whenever it repeats itself, it's tragic."


Chocolate shower
click to enlargeTom Baker, a 34-year employee who signed on at Hershey when he was 20, agreed.

"Now you're a commodity," he said. "Milton Hershey's ideal was stability for families, but there's none of that anymore. There's no more moral connection between business and working-class America."

Building what he viewed as a utopian company town, Hershey kept his employees working even during the Depression. Current Hershey workers point proudly to his school for orphans — now educating 1,200 needy children and, through company profits, possessing an endowment larger than some Ivy League universities'.

"It used to be kind of cool to work for Hershey's," said John Wood, a former maintenance supervisor who found another job several months ago. "But not over the last few years."

In Oakdale, union officials described the workers' severance package — up to 65 weeks of pay and benefits — as generous. Even so, anger toward the company runs high.

In Modesto, 12 miles to the southwest, some readers of the Modesto Bee have urged a chocolate boycott. In a letter to the editor, one man said his wish for Hershey's chief executive was that "the ghost of Milton Hershey haunts you forever!"

And in Hershey, Pa., the granddaughter of H.B. Reese, creator of the Peanut Butter Cup, vowed that no Hershey's product, including the one named for her grandfather, would pass her lips again.

"Mr. Hershey was a warm, wonderful man who wanted his business to stay in America," Rosie Rippon-Prete said in an interview.

But for all his genuine community spirit, Milton Hershey also was known as a tough businessman, said a biographer. In fact, Hershey came close to selling off his company in 1929 and was thwarted only by the stock market crash.

In today's market, even the great philanthropist may have been willing to shift some production overseas, said Michael D'Antonio, author of "Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams."

"My guess is that the company waited until it couldn't pursue any other option," he said. "If it were possible to stay and remain competitive and thriving, they would."

In Oakdale, the shutdown will cost restaurants some lunch trade, bankers some mortgage business and Central Valley dairies a huge customer.

Unemployed Hershey workers may find jobs, but few at wages comparable to their average of $16.81 an hour, officials said. Unemployment hovers at more than 9% in the Central Valley, compared with 4.8% statewide. Some local residents even endure a three-hour commute to jobs in the Bay Area.

For all that, Baker, the displaced Hershey employee, says he has no animosity toward Lenny, the first executive from outside the company picked for the top job.

"It's a corporation," Baker said. "When you get bit by a dog and you know that he bites, you don't hate the dog."

[urtrampsister]

What exactly are the chances of 2 boycotts being called within the same week for the same company but for different reasons? Hershey's once had an image in the mind's eye of a handsome GI during WW2 giving out Hershey bars to the town's admiring children as they marched through Europe. The epitome of genuine American kindness played out overseas and at home.

BUT THEN

Along comes NAFTA and a free trade agreement. The agreement that was going to solve the immigration problem by sending more jobs to Mexico. Sounds great on paper, but the reality is the minimum wage in Mexico is now 25% of what is was pre-NAFTA. More immigration than ever coming here and fewer jobs when they arrive. Hershey plans to exploit the cheap labor and wave goodbye to it's long time home. I plan on waving goodbye to my favorite candy bar with almonds.

Quote:

And in Hershey, Pa., the granddaughter of H.B. Reese, creator of the Peanut Butter Cup, vowed that no Hershey's product, including the one named for her grandfather, would pass her lips again.

Then you have the scummy lawsuit against beyond bomb. Products with entirely different names and markets that couldn't have possibly caused brand confusion or lost sales. And they don't bring the lawsuit until after the distro of beyond bomb's products had ceased. I have to ask if the products don't exist any more then what's the point?

[nuffsaid420]

Good point Dopey. If the product doesn't even exist why pursue the legal actions? Because they have money... more disposable money than any average REAL individual has.


You know as far as Hershey's chocolate goes, i have always enjoyed their candies, but just like any other CORPORATION that is going to SUE an INDIVIDUAL they will use their disposable income to make sure they win or atleast make the other person so broke they have no hope of finishing the lawsuit. I have to stop supporting that.

Quote:

The 113-year-old company has described the plant shutdown as part of a "global supply-chain transformation." Some 3,000 of Hershey's 13,000 workers will lose their jobs, including as many as 900 in the company's hometown of Hershey, Pa., where the streetlights are shaped like Kisses. By 2010, Hershey says, the moves will save shareholders as much as $190 million annually.

I wonder what the 190 million annual is going to be used for? Pursuing more BS lawsuits against people(their customers)

BOYCOTT HERSHEY"S

nuffsaid420

[urtrampsister]

Hershey posts lower 2Q profit
The News Tribune
Hershey, the nation's largest candymaker, on Thursday reported its profit tumbled 96 percent in the second quarter as it spent heavily to begin transforming its production lines and revive flat sales. The company's share prices plummeted more than 3.5 percent in morning trading. Meanwhile, it announced that it will make a major new entry into the fast-growing premium chocolate market with Starbucks-branded chocolates. The Hershey Co. earned $3.6 million, or a penny per share, for the three months ending...