New Mexico storeowner selling Breaking Bad "meth candy" is done when she says she's done

While the official, above-board merchandising for Breaking Bad has thus far been limited to DVD sets and soundtracks, fittingly the show has also produced a booming black market. In addition to the meth-making show inspiring Hot Topic T-shirts and, quite possibly, the actual making of meth, Breaking Bad has also spawned the apparently booming business of "meth candy" in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where local store The Candy Lady has begun selling bags of blue-dyed rock candy based on the actual props it supplies to the series. Not surprisingly, a lot of people in Albuquerque can't get enough sweet, sweet meth candy: Owner Debbie Hall says she's sold over 300 bags of it since Bryan Cranston pulled some out on the Late Show With David Letterman last month. "The response has been great," Hall told The Associated Press, clearly drunk with power, and possibly scheming to kill some innocent people if it means getting what she wants.

The meth candy's supposed warm reception, of course, doesn't go for everyone, as some state officials have said of The Candy Lady—as well as the neighboring Rebel Donut, which sells a "Blue Sky Breaking Donut" sprinkled with the stuff—that it needs to be reminded that drugs remain a serious epidemic and are not, in fact, delicious. Justifying her actions with a pattern of denial that she obviously can't keep up forever without being irreparably changed, Hall maintains that she's not out to "condone drugs" and "everyone needs to remember this is television." And so she plans to go on building her empire by selling her little baggies of addictive pleasure, and scoffing at any authority that tries to stand in her way. [via Washington Post]