Razors in an apple? Poison in your candy? We unwrap some of the Halloween myths that have been part of our childhood, and talk about modern day candy hysteria.
Marissa: Welcome to the Last Call Podcast. My name is Marissa Whitaker, and I'm the prevention educator at SUNY Cortland.
Sarah: My name is Sarah McGowan. I'm the assistant Director of Student Health and Wellness at Onondaga Community College. Our jobs are to educate students about potential risks associated with substance use.
Marissa: We approach substance use from a neutral stance, and our episodes are rooted in public health with a focus on science and harm reduction.
Sarah: Welcome back to the Last Call Podcast. So today we're doing some Halloween horror stories. So taking a deeper dive into some scary stories surrounding candy and other things potentially that people think could be found in their kids candy.
Marissa: So the razors in your apple, poison in your candy, we're going to uncover and kind of dispel some of these myths. So not only are these cases extremely rare, they're almost completely undocumented. In the rare cases where something nefarious did happen, it was explained after a further investigation. So as a total nerd for all of this Halloween and true crime and alcohol and other drugs, I did a little digging. So in 1074 in Texas, a boy did die after eating poisoned candy, but it wasn't by a random stranger. It was actually the child's father who laced his son's pixie six with cyanide. So a lot of this stuff does get dispelled upon further investigation.
Sarah: Emirates that is wild. And it's also creepy if you think about it. In general, trick or treating is kids going to a bunch of random strangers houses when at the end of the day, they have no idea who could be behind those doors.
Marissa: We're not saying that this doesn't exist, but there are very few legitimate cases that have been validated. So seeing it on your Aunt Val's Facebook who said that her hairdresser's daughter's friend found it not legitimate, that just increases hysteria. And because I was so adamant about looking into this, in fact checking some of it, there's a sociologist at the University of Delaware. His name is Joel Best. He's truly dedicated his life to looking into these urban legends. And anywhere from the Satanic panic to Halloween hysteria like this is up his alley. So he's done a bunch of research for a little historical reference. These articles date back to 1970, when people are talking about bubblegum being sprinkled with Lye, popcorn balls being coated with camphor. Like, who hears about this stuff? Candy may turn out to be packets containing sleeping pills. A lot of this stuff was truly hysteria. And then concerns did die down again for a bit about till 1982. And we're coming up now this year on the anniversary. I don't know if people have ever heard about this. It's been covered in some TV shows, podcasts, but cyanide laced Tylenol pills, killing seven people. So this prompted a huge fear of contaminated items. And again, I know we're not here to talk about Tylenol, but what came of this were some harm reduction and protective things. So amid the nationwide attention, two things happened. So we took measures to add tamper evidence ceiling to medicine bottles. So now you don't just twist the top off and the pills are there. Now you have to you can see if something's been tampered with. Also something else that happened is communities began to ban trick or treating. So grocery stores reported their candy sales dropping 20% to 50% that year. So again, the hysteria happened and now the thoughts have been planted in people's heads.
Sarah: Yeah, that's interesting too, Morris, because when I think about the Tylenol thing that happened, seven people, I mean, it's sad, but I would picture that causing a lot more deaths than just seven people.
Marissa: And the true horror of that, they never even found who did that. So that really kind of was one of these phenomenons that was never really explained or no conclusion ever came to that. So talk about the horror story that is free.
Sarah: Well, so this is interesting, and this isn't based on Halloween, but I remember reading about this event that happened. So this is from NPR. So on August 16, 2018, more than 70 people overdosed around or on a park near the Yale College campus in Connecticut. This was a result of ingesting synthetic cannabis that had been laced with fentanyl. So there were a total of 76 cases, but luckily, no deaths occurred. As you can picture, merres, I'm sure this was a scary site, walking into a park and then seeing person after person just drop to the ground as a result of an overdose.
Marissa: Interesting that you mentioned that it's synthetic cannabis that people were overdosing on with fentanyl added to it. This goes to show the risks of using a synthetic product, especially a synthetic cannabis product. Not saying that you can't have a bad reaction with regular weed, but the risks using a synthetic product are much, much higher because there's no oversight, there's no third party testing. So again, this synthetic product was not purchased at a dispensary.
Sarah: It's also interesting because this happened in 2018. So when I heard about this or read about it, it's interesting that it happened in a time where narcan is way more readily available, because if it didn't, I would think that these 76 cases could have easily turned into 76 deaths with people not carrying narcan or having narcan or even being aware that using it doesn't cause any harm, right.
Marissa: And a good segue into some of the things that we might be dealing with in the near future. So now I think a really big fear for a lot of parents in particular is the concept of having edibles or THC in people's candy. So, again, mentioning everybody should be just checking your candy in general, regardless of if we're looking for a razor blade or if we're looking for some THC sour patches or something, you should always be inspecting what you're going to eat.
Sarah: And not to say that kids can't get a hold of people's edibles because that is happening more and more. But also just being smart, if you are choosing to consume audibles, keeping them in a place where your kids don't have access to them, where they can't think that it's candy or can't be confused with candy. Because kids see right packaging or they see anything that might look like candy. And that could no perfect.
Marissa: And animals too. First of all, that's so messed up for someone to give an edible willingly to an animal like worse kind of person. But dogs are curious, especially big ones that can counter surf. So don't leave the pan of brownies where a dog could get it. Don't leave it where a kid, a sibling could get it. Not even little kids, but just a person who doesn't want to be high. Don't put that in a position or a place where they could unknowingly ingest that and then they tell you they have three brownies later and they're tripping their face off.
Sarah: Yeah, exactly. And not to plant the hype, but it's important to remember too, that THC can look like anything these days. So it could be a powder, it could be a pill. So just keeping that in mind, if you are choosing to consume legal products, be smart and don't keep them in a place where kids or pets can get to them.
Marissa: Right. And also let's acknowledge edibles from those are expensive. So I don't really think that there are going to be people that hey, I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on edibles, put it in kids candy because that's expensive. So that's also where some of the hysteria can be debunked. That would not be a very cost effective strategy for a person to put edibles into candy.
Sarah: Yeah, it's really interesting tumor, because I don't know if this is happening around where you live, but I've seen a couple of news stories about rainbow fentanyl. And again, not to say that it's not out there, not to say that it's not being found in our communities, but are people really giving kids rainbow fentanyl in their Halloween candy? If so, just to make sure that you're checking your kids candy and be smart, don't choose to consume anything that has an open package. If it looks shady, just throw it out. It looks like ecstasy anyway. So hopefully if you're a parent, you're not letting your kids suck on a tablet that looks like ecstasy.
Marissa: Right, but if it also if it looks like ecstasy, maybe not for a child, but maybe for a college student that might think they're like taking E on Halloween and then look up what that stuff looks like so you don't take it.
Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. Morris and so kind of on that same page, it's important that with any big drinking holiday, you go into it considering your intentions for the night, but also thinking about how you're going to be or stay safe. So we talk about this a lot, just consistently. We're based in harm reduction, so we want to make sure that you're considering all the ways that you can be safe. If you do decide that you want to party on Halloween or you do want to have a good time, what are some things that are important for people to do, especially going into a big drinking holiday like Halloween?
Marissa: First and foremost, stay with your friends throughout the night. So go from place to place if you're traveling together, also knowing what your limits are. So know what it takes you to get into that good place where you still have your wits about you and you're not blacking out, you're not forgetting things. So again, and if your limit is having no drinks, that's okay to stick to that limit, too, and just go out and not necessarily drink either.
Sarah: Absolutely. Morris I think it's also important to never set your drink down or never take a drink from someone that you don't know. So people don't always have good intentions. And I think especially on big drinking holidays, sometimes the thought is to just get as messed up as possible. And thinking about before you go out, you're also thinking about how are you getting your alcohol? How am I going to drink so that I'm not taking a drink from someone that I don't know? And then who's going to watch my drink if I do go to the bathroom.
Marissa: Speaking of people that you don't know, what are you doing on Halloween? You're wearing a frigging costume so people have a mask on. People aren't what they look like normally, so you might think you know someone, or you might think you don't know somebody, and it is someone you know. So it's hard to know who you know and who you don't know on Halloween.
Sarah: Absolutely. And so kind of going along with that, just monitoring how you're feeling throughout the night and when it might be time to head home. There's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I've had enough, or, hey, you're starting to get really sloppy. I think it's time that we think about how we're going to get back home.
Marissa: Yeah, especially when it's no longer just Halloween night. It's like Halloween weekend, Halloween, trying to stick to one substance when you go out. So if you're going out and you just want to drink, stick to alcohol. If you're going out and weed is your choice that night, stick to weed. Don't be mixing substances.
Sarah: Absolutely. And again, we talk about all these things pretty consistently, but alternating your drinks with water or something non alcoholic. So even if you want to take a little breather for a little while, it's okay to dump your beer out and add water to what would be your beer or having a soda. Instead of just drinking consistently throughout the.
Marissa: Night, and especially during these higher risk holidays, make sure you have something to eat before you drink and something substantial, so not like a piece of lettuce, something legit.
Sarah: And the last thing, too. Morris I think it's important to think about what, if any, of your night that you want on social media. So I know everyone has their phones attached to their hand these days, so at the time, it could seem like a good idea to go out in your costume and post pictures of you drinking from a funnel. But is that post going to age well, and is it going to prevent you from being taken seriously when you graduate from college and go get a job?
Marissa: And that's why I always went as a hippie for my Halloween costume. Just a good tie dye t shirt, and you are set. We hope you enjoyed some of the Halloween hysteria that we've talked about in the past, what the future might look like. And if you're going out during this Halloween weekend, make sure that you're staying safe and you're reducing the risks and any potential harms that could haunt you. We will see you next time. Bye.