Every year by early October, mom blogs and Facebook parenting groups across the U.S. send out warnings about the latest Halloween scare from razor blades to poisoned candy. This Halloween season, the parent’s concern is that candy will be laced with rainbow fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug that looks like Smarties candy.
Cases of Fentanyl overdoses have recently skyrocketed leading to the death of over 34,000 people in the U.S. as of 2021. Since then, the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit has seized over 4,000 grams of Fentanyl in Portland. Twenty-seven overdose deaths were suspected to be caused by the drug in 2022.
“If I had older kids that I wasn’t taking trick or treating, that would cross my mind and I would want to take a look at the candy,” said Scott Montanaro, a parent and history teacher at Ida B. Wells.
While the effects of fentanyl are a valid fear, the history of poisoned Halloween candy is severely limited when it comes to putting trick-or-treaters in harm’s way.
Rumors of a new Halloween crisis have circled since the 1974 Candyman murder when Ronald O’Bryan gave cyanide-laced candy to his 8-year-old son. This is the only reported incident of poisoned Halloween candy and it specifically targeted O’Bryan’s own children, not a random slew of trick-or-treaters.
“For a while with marijuana legalization, it was ‘what’s gonna happen if people sneak marijuana in.’ I always scoff at that as just hysteria,” said Montanaro.
However, foreign objects in candy are slightly more common. According to ABC News, in 2022 these incidents hit closer to home when razor blades were found in Halloween candy in Eugene, Oregon. The Eugene police department did not find the culprit and encouraged parents to look through the candy of their children prior to consumption.
At Ida B. Wells, most parent concerns were independent of the candy itself and instead on traffic safety. “The toughest thing about this time of year is that when it gets darker people don’t realize how invisible they are to cars,” said Hillary Brown, a parent, and teacher at Ida B. Wells High School. “I’ve seen near misses with our students and cars and we’ve had kids get hit by cars and have really bad injuries in our neighborhood.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, children are twice as likely to be hit by a car on Halloween night. They recommend using flashlights when trick or treating to appear more visible to drivers and walking on sidewalks when possible.
The poisoned Halloween candy fears are an example of the availability heuristic which is when one estimates the likelihood of an event based on familiar information. For example, while it’s significantly more likely to be hit by a car on Halloween than be poisoned by Halloween candy, often people fear the latter because it receives more attention and therefore seems common.
When a child passes away on Halloween after eating candy, a post is quickly published encouraging families to check their child’s candy before an autopsy is performed proving that the cause of death was unrelated. For example, in 1970 when a five-year-old child died on Halloween night, his uncle reported that it was the result of heroin in Halloween candy. Less than a month later, it was released that the child found the heroin in his uncle’s home, not inside the wrapper of a Halloween treat.
This is one example of the harmful misinformation on social media that sends parents into a panic. According to CNN, fake news on Facebook gets six times more clicks or engagement than real news which makes Facebook money and leaves parents wondering what to believe.
“Social media can be great and it can also drive you bonkers because if you have a predisposition for worrying about that already and then click on something that confirms your fear then your feed will go down that route,” said Brown. “I see that a lot in parent communities with anything related to kids so I don’t take the bait.”
The societal dependence on social media is one reason that checking your sources is important. Ensure that your information comes from a trusted publication or expert in the field of that subject. Content that leaves parents with an emotional reaction gets more engagement whether or not it’s fact-so it’s important to not feed into inaccurate posts.
While teens may not be engaging in trick or treating, there are still risks to look out for on Halloween. According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, 61.5% of teens in the U.S. have abused alcohol by 12th grade, meaning they drank to the point of being incapable of completing day-to-day activities. The CDC reported that 8% of 12th graders used illicit substances other than Marijuana such as cocaine or heroin in 2022.
“I would prefer that everybody delay using it for as long as possible, but I know that’s not realistic for every person. Harm reduction is about staying as safe as possible when experimenting,” said Sylvia Scott, a health and nutrition teacher at Ida B. Wells. Harm reduction strategies include knowing the correct dosage, a drug’s effects, and starting low. “You can never go backward after taking something,” said Scott.
Teens can also carry Narcan, a medication that reverses the effects of opioids. “It’s never a bad idea to carry it,” said Scott. “It saves lives. A lot of people wonder what would happen if you took Narcan and you weren’t taking a narcotic but nothing bad happens. If you’re afraid, use it.”
In addition, to avoid taking drugs that are laced with Fentanyl, test kits are available through Multnomah County Health Services. Test kits are the only way to guarantee that one knows what they are taking. “Even if you know who your dealer is and think you know where it’s coming from, it’s too risky not to test your substances,” said Scott.
Halloween is a stressful time for parents of trick-or-treaters no matter how unlikely it is for Halloween candy to be tampered with. However, if it lowers anxiety, looking through your child’s holiday treats and using reflectors to draw the attention of vehicles will help them enjoy the holiday safely.
It’s also important to talk to teens about harm reduction and the dangers of substances before they are introduced to them through peers or other avenues. According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, when parents regularly talk to their kids about the dangers of drugs early, their kids are 50% less likely to use drugs.
Look out for misinformation and be mindful of what you’re consuming this Halloween. Brown said, “I can’t live my life being afraid of Halloween candy.”
