Marshall FluhartyMaroon Echoes Editor October 31st; the time of year where you can let your inner demons out and be rewarded for it. Where kids dress up as ghoulish demons, swashbuckling pirates, and pretty princesses. I’m talking about Halloween, where children travel from door to door to collect candy from their neighbors as a reward for asking for a treat instead of tricking them. Recently, instead of fun and celebration, there has been an “epidemic” in the news surrounding this spooky holiday, poisoned and drugged candy.People appear to be taking the time to tamper with the sweet treat everyone wants; so instead of being a delicious treat, it becomes, metaphorically speaking, the poisoned apple. This trend started over forty years ago in 1970. In New York, there were two unconfirmed incidents where kids were poisoned by their candy. Then two days later a young child died of heroin, his uncle said it was within his candy, but it was later discovered that his uncle had in fact left out his drugs and the child consumed it.
According to CNN, in 1974, another child died in Houston from poisoned candy, his father poisoned him with cyanide in a pixie stick. After that, the story of the “Candyman Killer” quickly went around and communities banned the tradition of “trick-or-treating” altogether. The New Jersey governor signed a bill saying that jail time will be given to those who tamper with candy that will be given to trick-or-treaters. Though forty years of speculation about poison candy and child deaths, there have been no confirmed incidents involving poisoned candy or razor blades within candy. It has become an urban legend, where only a small number of rumored incidents happen and it explodes out of proportion, into countrywide anxiety. Author Jan Harold Brunvand believes that though urban legends can and usually are based on real incidents, they are often based on real-world fears. The urban legend of tainted candy began in the ’70s, which was a very fearful time for the US with The Cold War fears and The Vietnam War ending just years before, the general public felt victimized and began to feel unsafe at home. It’s very unlikely that today someone will put poison or drugs of any kind within the sacks of sweets the children carry around. The price of such drugs as edibles and heroin are much too expensive for someone to purposely give that to your child. The price of cannabis edible gummy squares is twelve dollars alone for a small pack. This coupled with other high drug prices compounds the fact that it is highly unlikely for your child to get drugged from their Halloween candy. “The false case of the poisoned candy legend is another way that American fears manifested: as an easily understood threat to innocence,” says W. Scott Poole, writer for CNN health.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Maroon Echoes StaffAdvisor- Ronnie Waggoner Archives
November 2020
Keep up with the latests by clicking the link below and following these accounts!
Buy A Target Yearbook Today!
Start Capturing Your Memories Here!
Sign Up for Our Newsletter Today!Want weekly updates from the Maroon Echoes Right in your inbox? Click the button below!
|