Murray, NEB- As autumn sets in and the leaves fall, Halloween approaches. Kids all over the country go trick-or-treating for candy. But in recent years, parents have developed a new fear.
For decades, parents have warned children about blades or sharp pins being hidden in their trick-or-treat baskets. It has been a common joke for parents to “check” or even eat the candy to ensure its safety. However, this Halloween, adults are less concerned about razor blades and more worried about the rise in popularity of rainbow fentanyl.
Last year, the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration put out a PSA warning that rainbow fentanyl is marketed toward children by drug dealers. The bright colors and candy-like tablet shape are used to hook them into addiction. Misinformation claiming that Halloween candy would be the target caught parents’ attention. One of these sources of misinformation came from Republican senators, led by Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall. He created a video PSA last October claiming, “I come to you today not only as a U.S. senator but as a fellow American concerned about the health of our nation’s youth this Halloween. The powerful drug cartels are coming after your kids, your neighbors, your students, your family members, and your friends.” Pandemonium soon ensued, with many worried their children would accidentally overdose.
Joel Best, a sociology and criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware has spent decades studying drugged Halloween candy. He says that it is very unlikely drug dealers would try to hook children into using rainbow fentanyl. “The suggestion that a school-age child would go from accidental user of fentanyl to addict is far-fetched.” Best has not found a confirmed incident of a child being injured or killed from contaminated candy during Halloween since he began collecting data in the mid-1980s. He attributes this to the fact that opioids are expensive to produce, and the loss of profit would not be worth it. Parents have no reason to fear their children’s safety while eating candy this Halloween.
