OAKLAND COUNTY SOMERSET STORE PULLS MARIJUANA COOKBOOK

Looking to add Trippy Krispy Treats to your holiday hors d'oeuvres list?

Until this week, you could find a recipe for the marijuana-laced
sweets in a cookbook sold at the newly opened Urban Outfitters at the
Somerset Collection in Troy.

But the hip store -- which caters to the trendy high school and
college crowd with cool clothes, edgy books and games, and funky home
decorations -- pulled "The Marijuana Chef Cookbook" by S.T. Oner
after a Troy group complained.

Teenagers and other shoppers "didn't go there specifically to be
exposed to that," said Ann Comiskey, executive director of the Troy
Community Coalition for the Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, the
group that raised concerns to Urban Outfitters' local managers.

"They went there to buy clothes or a handbag. They went to buy a
T-shirt and, 'Oh, by the way, here's a book on marijuana.' "

Calls to the Troy store were referred to the company's Philadelphia
headquarters. A spokeswoman there declined to comment. She would not
say whether the book had been pulled from other stores. The cookbook
was still available Friday on the retailer's Web site, www.urbanoutfitters.com.

The Urban Outfitters store in Ann Arbor never got the cookbook, but
an employee who answered the phone Friday said the store does sell a
board game called "Weed the Game."

It's not the first time the chain has been criticized for its
merchandise. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People opposed its "Ghettopoly" game and the Anti-Defamation League
objected to a T-shirt that read, "New Mexico, Cleaner than Regular Mexico."

The retailer also was criticized when it sold a T-shirt reading
"Voting Is for Old People" and another emblazoned with shopping bags
and money signs that read "Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl."

Coalition members were pleased that Urban Outfitters removed the
marijuana cookbooks, but some shoppers didn't understand the controversy.

"If you don't like something they're selling, don't buy it," said
15-year-old Jay Savage of Clinton Township, who visited Urban
Outfitters for the first time Wednesday with his mom and 18-year-old
sister Natalie.

Jay said he hadn't noticed any of the store's edgier items, including
drinking and sex card games, but that it wouldn't have stopped him
from going there for the clothes.

But Comiskey said Urban Outfitters was sending the wrong message.
"Selling books on how to do something illegal -- like how to pack a
good joint -- that's a risk for our kids."