The following essay is covered in The Conversation, an online publication.
Reporters start contacting me in October about rumors of contaminated Halloween treats.
There are reported incidents of trick-or-treaters getting razor blades in apples or pins and poison in candy bars, but there is no evidence that any child has ever been killed.
People think that Halloween sadism is very common.
Contemporary legends include stories about contaminated treats. They are stories we have been told are true. They warn that if we aren't careful, we'll be in a dangerous world filled with bad guys.
Reporters began reaching out earlier than usual this year, and they wanted to talk about a new alleged threat: " rainbow fentanyl."
Thousands of people have died from overdoses of Fentanyl over the past two decades. Drug enforcement authorities noted that the pills were being made in different colors. Drug traffickers are trying to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults by selling bright colored pills and powder offentanyl.
The idea that the colors may be a marketing ploy to attract younger drug users was covered by many news outlets. Some people began to connect rainbow fentanyl to Halloween.
The head of the Republican National Committee said in an interview on Fox News that every mom in the country was worried about her child going trick-or-treating. Schumer repeated the warnings in order to prove the bipartisan appeal of protecting children.
It is worth looking at what is familiar and what is new.
Commentators are prepared to link September crime news to the possibility that it will cause problems on Halloween.
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Seven people died after consuming tampered packages of pills in the 1980's. Parents need to be extra careful when looking at Halloween treats. The increase in protective packaging for all sorts of products was a result of those deaths.
There were rumors in 2001 that there were plans to attack a mall where some parents allowed their children to go trick-or-treating, or that terrorists had purchased large amounts of candy so they could poison the treats.
Halloween warnings can be made of trends in drug use. In the year that Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, the Denver Police posted online warnings that parents should keep an eye out for THC-laden candy. The department did not know of any cases of children eating marijuana candy during Halloween.
In September of this year, there were reports of deaths caused by the use of black-market e-cigs, and news that Pennsylvania authorities had seized commercial marijuana candy that was supposedly smuggled from a state where it could be purchased legally.
One obvious hole in these concerns is the fact that drugs tend to cost more than candy and can be found in the neighborhood of a dollar or two a dose.
Fentanyl costs more. If a dealer passes the drug off as candy, what is their overarching goal? It's not realistic to suggest that a school-age kid would become a paying drug user.
The villains in modern legends aren't expected to act rationally. Ask why gang members would try to kill motorists who blink their headlights at them, and the answer is likely to be, "That's just the sort of thing those sadistic people do." It wouldn't make sense for someone to give a bright colored pill to a small child, but it isn't impossible. It's believed that ringing the alarm bells is justified.
There's a truth to these fears. Fentanyl is a harmful drug. There are a lot of fears about immigrants, witches, drugs, conspirators and so on in American history. These fears are reflections of the changes happening in society. Some people can be frightened by things changing. It's true that these fears are usually overblown.
Important political figures and news media outlets are willing to spread the warnings about the dangers of rainbow fentanyl. There aren't a lot of prominent spokespeople for claims about Halloween sadism.
In a time when many news outlets seem intent on maintaining their audiences by frightening them, calls for protecting our children from the dangers of boogeyman drug dealers return us to the spirit of Halloween.
The conversation published this article. The original article is worth a read.
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