A pair of Oregon parents ate what appeared to be Sour Patch Kids from their children’s Halloween haul – but had to be hospitalized because the candies were laced with meth, according to the Oregonian.
US poison control centers, doctors and law enforcement agencies issued warnings about drug-contaminated sweets finding their way – accidentally or intentionally – into their kids trick-or-treat candy.
Some warnings said parents should be particularly on guard due to the recent proliferation of legal marijuana and weed edibles in 30 states.
But several states were cautioned about an uptick in meth candies, too, and at least one other boy ate treats laced with the drug this season.
Oregon parents who ate these Sour Patch-like candies that their children got trick-or-treating on Halloween were hospitalized because the gummies were laced with meth
Every year, parents wring their hands over what strangers might hand out to their trick-or-treating kids.
Horror stories of treats that turned out to be malicious tricks – laced with drugs, poisoned, or with sharp objects slipped in – abound as Halloween approaches.
But, for the most part, these are more urban legend than legitimate concern.
One woman was charged with endangering children for handing out gag items that children consumed (despite her apparent warnings that they weren’t edible ) in 1964.
In 2000, a Minneapolis man faced a similar charge after a child found a needle when biting into a candy bar from the stranger on Halloween.
And in the 1970s, two children died due to poisoned candy. One of them ate heroin-laced candy (though the treats were part of seedy ploy his own family had devised).
Though confirmed cases like these are quite rare, health officials and parents had cause for a little more concern this year.
Marijuana is now legal in 30 states, plus Washington DC.
With broader legalization has become big business, especially for the edibles industry.
States where marijuana is legal have seen upticks in children and teens winding up in the ER after mistaking weed edibles for regular candy.
Some edibles-makers even package their products as look-alikes of popular candies, like Reese’s (‘Rasta Reeses’) or KitKats (‘KeeferKat’).
But one Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) office, in St Louis warned of an uptick in similarly disguised, meth-laced candies in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.
Earlier this month, an Ohio boy ate such a candy. It made him very sick, but he’s now expected to recover.
Meth use has increased in Oregon in recent years, too.
After their children had been trick-or-treating in Aloha, Oregon, one pair of parents decided to dip into the candy haul.
But The ended up being taken to the hospital, where meth was found in their systems. The Sour Patch-like candies they had eaten tested positive for trace amounts of the drug, too.
Their children, fortunately, did not eat the treats, and the couple is expected to make a full recovery.