Of the many urban legends associated with Halloween, none may be as persistent — or as terrifying to adults — as someone killing children via candy. The guiding logic seems to be that there’s nothing in this world that children love more than sweets and nothing murderers love more than murder. So, year after year, stories pop up about Halloween candy filled with razor blades, cyanide, pins, and even drugs.
The 2022 version of this phenomenon is “rainbow” fentanyl. Fentanyl is a drug intended to treat severe pain, but when abused, its potency can cause death. In August, the DEA described this whimsical-sounding, multicolored version of the synthetic opioid as “a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults.” States like Florida and West Virginia have already issued warnings to parents about the danger that colorful fentanyl (sometimes in candies like Skittles) poses to children. Senate Republicans have even put out a PSA warning about the danger. There are also a few media outlets relentlessly following the story.
The thing about urban legends, though, is that they’re based on our fears, not on truth.
As my former colleague German Lopez pointed out in 2018, stories about adults killing children through laced candy go back to the 1950s, but there’s never been any evidence or data suggesting that this is a real problem. Lopez wrote:
The closest thing to a case like the ones so many parents worry about comes from 1974. Back then, an 8-year-old died after eating Pixy Stix laced with cyanide. But the culprit wasn’t a stranger handing out candy to trick-or-treaters; it was the child’s father, who apparently did it to get life insurance money.
R&I ~ MJM
PragDem
Article URL : https://www.vox.com/culture/2022/10/27/23427073/rainbow-fentanyl-halloween-candy-risk