Urban Outfitters Under Fire for 'Prescription Shot Glasses' - East Idaho News
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Urban Outfitters Under Fire for ‘Prescription Shot Glasses’

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(NEW YORK) — Urban Outfitters, known for its quirky clothing and “out of the box” merchandise, is no stranger to the controversy that surrounds their often tongue-in-cheek products. The company’s latest commodities to come under fire are its series of medical-themed drinking products such as “prescription shot glasses,” “syringe shot shooters” and “Rx pint glasses.”

Although intended to be funny, The Partnership at Drugfree.org is not laughing.

“These products make light of prescription drug misuse and abuse, a dangerous behavior that is responsible for more deaths in the United States each year than heroin and cocaine combined,” The Partnership at Drugfree.org wrote on their website, urging readers to sign a petition to have the products removed from Urban’s stores and website.

Since being posted on May 1, more than 2,960 people have signed the petition, and the number continues to grow.

The plea continues, “Medicine abuse has increased 33 percent over the past five years with one in four teens having misused or abused a prescription drug in their lifetime. Combined with alcohol, the misuse and abuse of prescription medications can be especially dangerous, making the Urban Outfitter Rx pint and shot glasses and flasks even more disturbing.”

Urban Outfitters has not yet responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

The company’s ‘Navajo’ collection also came under fire after Sasha Houston Brown, a Native American woman from Minnesota, deemed it offensive.

In 2011, Brown sent a complaint to the company’s CEO saying she was offended by “plastic dreamcatchers wrapped in pleather hung next to an indistinguishable mass of artificial feather jewelry and hyper sexualized clothing featuring an abundance of suede, fringe and inauthentic tribal patterns,” after visiting a store in Minneapolis.

“It was the experience of being there and immersed in that setting, surrounded by all of these items, that took this cultural offense and cultural appropriation to another level,” Brown told ABCNews.com at the time. “It was just beyond demeaning and inappropriate on a personal and collective level.”

A spokesman for the clothing company said, “The Native American-inspired trend and specifically the term ‘Navajo’ have been cycling thru fashion, fine art and design for the last few years. We currently have no plans to modify or discontinue any of these products.”

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