POCONO TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Blame it on the Ambien.
Comedian Roseanne Barr says she had taken the drug for insomnia before she wrote an offensive tweet about a former advisor to President Barack Obama.
"I just think that it's really racist to be honest, and she just has to go, you know what I'm saying?” said Haki Rushing of Tobyhanna Township.
The company that makes Ambien, Sanofi tweeted a response, saying in part:
"...racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication."
"It's hilarious. It's crazy. I agree with them. I totally agree with them. That's not an excuse for racism. There's people with all types of medications everywhere. That's no excuse,” said Kaseem Cadet of Tobyhanna Township.
Sanofi Pasteur is the vaccines division of the pharmaceutical company. Its U.S. headquarters is located in Swiftwater. Ambien is produced at another Sanofi facility.
"I think anything they say is factual and would just be based strictly off their tests and information based on their experiments,” said Michael Gay of Cresco.
Roseanne Barr has deleted her tweet about Ambien, but people Newswatch 16 spoke with say the damage is done. They are not sure how her career will survive this.
"Racism should not exist in the first place, so yeah, I definitely agree, and it's good they kicked her off and canceled her show,” said Martyna Bielawska of Tobyhanna Township.
ABC executives have canceled "Roseanne" because of the controversy, but they say it's too early to say if they can reboot the show without Roseanne Barr. That may be a possibility.