is that because Maraschino cherries are classified as "decorations" and supposedly not meant to be eaten, the FDA allows them to be colored with a toxic dye that is not allowed in other foods. A few, I suppose, are fine. But don't OD.

CLAIM:
Maraschino cherries are produced using a toxic dye that has been banned for human consumption.

FALSE

https://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/cherries.asp

In the early 1970s I spent seven months hitching around Canada, as a hippie.
I got a job for a while in a restaurant kitchen and occasionally the chef sent me to the storeroom upstairs for supplies.

There was a HUGE jar of Maraschino Cherries there,
and each time I was there I'd help myself to a few.

in my Manhattan, right now.

Ba-da-Bings.

cherries and she almost cried. She had not known that the ones in cocktails are available in the US (they are very expensive but worth it). Maraschino cherries are from Croatia and the Northern Italian coast. They do not taste like the ones you got in your Shirley Temple when you were a kid and were full of the dreaded "red dye #2".
https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/in-praise-of-luxardo-cherries-article
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/luxardo-maraschino-cherries/

Do you mean originally?

Because the video referenced American cherries.

I never really thought about it, but now I know where Maraschino Cherries come from. That they are brined first is fascinating.