The metallic ones are not edible. The pearl sugar ones are.
Silver and gold dragees are edible. They have an infantesimally small amount of metal in them and some of the "sue crazy" states have outlawed them, but the less hysterical states allow them.
There are quite a few threads about the edibility of dragees on here. You might want to search for those and read them. It's been covered pretty exhaustively.
okay... please don't laugh but i do i know the difference between the metalic and the silver?! i have a little cup of them i bought at the local cake shop..they are marked "silver dragees" .... so i assume, they are the edible ones.
Yes, we're talking about the same thing. The silver dragees are white in color on the inside (sugar) and are metallic on the outside.
the new search feature is a little funky. Here's what you need to do.
Hit the search tab at the top of the page and type in "silver dragee". It'll take you to a page with cake pics at the top (Results Found in Gallery). Scroll down to "Results Found in Forums" and click on "View more results in forums" right under that heading and it'll take you to the older threads.
I got my dragées from globalsugararts.com and I just went by their suggestions in the product descriptions as far as consuming them went. They're very pretty, at any rate!
Do any states actually outlaw them? I know that here in CA they are perfectly legal; however there was a lawyer whose opinion was that they posed a health risk (because they are coated in real silver, which is never purged from the body and thus accumulates in your body over the years). Anyway he kept suing people that sold them here, claiming they were selling a toxic substance for consumption.; his lawsuits were valid because he simply pointed out that silver metal is inedible and left the burden upon the seller to go to court to scientifically prove that there is no harm from eating the things. Rather than incur court costs, most sellers just settled his suits out of court, and then abandoned the practice of selling to/in CA. You'll find more details about that if you search the forums as Ruth0209 mentions 
Some search tips:
On the forum tab, click 'search' (the word in white just below the forum tab). Using this search will just bring up threads, not photos and recipes and threads.
If you enter "silver dragees", you'll get 4846 results.
If you enter "silver AND dragees", you'll get it narrowed down to 315.
If you enter "dragees", you'll get 792.
Putting the word "AND" (in caps) when using a multi-word phrase to search will really narrow it down for you. Because entering "silver dragees" tells the system to search for threads that have the word 'silver' and the word 'dragee', but not necessarily both in the same thread. Using "AND" between the words tells the system to search for threads that have both words.
For example, entering "red roses" vs. "red AND roses" gives you 14,792 vs. 330 results.
Do any states actually outlaw them? I know that here in CA they are perfectly legal; however there was a lawyer whose opinion was that they posed a health risk (because they are coated in real silver, which is never purged from the body and thus accumulates in your body over the years). Anyway he kept suing people that sold them here, claiming they were selling a toxic substance for consumption.; his lawsuits were valid because he simply pointed out that silver metal is inedible and left the burden upon the seller to go to court to scientifically prove that there is no harm from eating the things. Rather than incur court costs, most sellers just settled his suits out of court, and then abandoned the practice of selling to/in CA. You'll find more details about that if you search the forums as Ruth0209 mentions
That's terrible! I don't think lawyers should be allowed to bring suits like that. It's obvious he was just doing it for the money, not for any concern for the health of others! (If I were Queen of the Universe, he'd be disbarred, never allowed to join a bar in any other jurisdiction and be made to return all that money, with interest!)
Another lawyer who needs to be added to that proverbial pile in the ocean! 
IndyDebi: Thanks!!! I was using the other "search" tab and was just coming up pretty empty. I appreciate the tip and explanation. I gave it a try and yes indeed it worked just like you described! I appreciate your time in explaining that.
as for CA/lawyers and dragees...wow......that sounds like a lot of energy used on something minute. As I understand the safety of others and the ingesting "silver"....I cannot imagine it accumulating into much unless it was something one consumed daily by the handfuls. I guess if people try hard enough, they can always find something to sue someone about.
I am not an expert on silver and it's safety, so i probably am over stepping my bounds here.......but.............. i just wanted to say that!
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