OPINION: Sickeningly Sweet Treats: Fact or Fiction?

• October 24, 2022

Naomi Bloom
MANAGING EDITOR

(Notice: This article contains non-graphic descriptions of poisoning and death)

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently published a warning about an “alarming emerging trend of colorful fentanyl available across the United States” being made to appeal to younger people. This resulted in the return of scares about tampered Halloween candy. These stories of poisoned candies, drugged treats, and knives in apples spread like wildfire as soon as fall comes around every year. But, fortunately, these stories are usually just stories, being more of a spooky tale than reality.

While the very occasional dangerous Halloween candy occurrence does happen, it is very rare, and it is much less of an issue than the media and worried parents make it out to be. The stories revolving around Halloween candy tend to be a combination of “stranger danger” and how drugs are being marketed towards younger people nowadays. 

Of the few cases of Halloween candies being poisoned, the majority were isolated incidents. The most infamous case of this was the poisoning of eight-year-old Timothy Marc O’Bryan in 1974, whose Pixie Stix were laced with cyanide. However, after further investigation, it turned out to be his own father who did it, not the work of an odd neighbor or a stranger. Similarly, in 1970, when five-year-old Kevin Toston died shortly after Halloween, many jumped to the conclusion that it must have been his candy, and so it was reported as that. But, it turned out that he accidentally took his uncle’s medicine, and the rest of his family blamed it on the candy to protect his uncle. There was even a case in 1982 where a child’s doctor misread his lab results and said that he had cyanide poisoning (which was immediately brought to the press), and he only later realized that the tests had actually come back negative.

It is more common to find to foreign objects in treats (usually apples), often played off as a prank. However, it’s much easier to check for those than drugs or poison, which you can’t see. Besides, who eats the apples they get on Halloween?

Drugged candy is far less common. As Abby Ohlheiser from the Washington Post said, drugs and edibles are “way too expensive for someone to decide to give them out on Halloween.” And there is no real motive for people to do that—even if they were trying to get the kids to come back to buy more drugs, how could they possibly remember which house it came from? There is little evidence to back up how often many say it occurs. “The specter of THC-laced candies is no more threatening than past baseless legends,” said Joel Best, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware.

In the end, your Halloween candy being tampered with is less of a concern than the amount of food coloring in it, and the only one who should really be worried about Halloween candy is your dentist. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to err on the side of caution and make sure that any candy you get is from an actual brand and is fully wrapped and sealed, but it shouldn’t be so much of a worry that it takes the fun out of the night. Happy early Halloween, and stay safe.