No Tricks; Just Treats

With Halloween around the corner, my social media has been inundated with spooky (not that I mind, at all). Everything from kids costume adds, to Halloween memes, to invites to spooky events. It's a great time of year. Strangely, this year I've noticed a lot of posts about the poison candy myth; specifically, how it is completely false. It is totally understandable why parents would be concerned about their kids eating candy handed out by a stranger. But it is also understandable why so many folks get frustrated that this myth continues to get spread about. Because of this, I wanted to dive in on the origins of this myth and whether we should or should not be worried for our kids.

As with many skeptical discussions, I think it is important to set forth some operational definitions; i.e. what qualifies as a Halloween poisoning? Well there are some isolated incidents of children's candy being poisoned. For example, in 1974, Ronald O'Bryan gave cyanide laced pixie sticks to five children, two of his own. Now this may seem to be a genuine case of poisoning, but it was later discovered that O'Bryan was attempting to collect life insurance on the deaths of his children. This doesn't exactly ring true to the heart of the myth. Given the myth stirs fears for children's safety in the broader public, it seems fit to limit our discussion to incidents involving tainted candy being randomly distributed in the usual trick-or-treat fashion.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's look back to the origin of the tainted candy myth. Where did it come from; is there any truth to concerns; where did it all start? In Samira Kawash's book, Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure, she outlines some sources for the rise of fears surrounding Halloween candy. There is a definite social aspect to this, as social integration increased throughout the 20th century fears began to rise about who you could trust in your neighborhood. Because Halloween was traditionally (and still is to a degree) a night of mischief and mayhem, it was particularly susceptible to these sorts of fears. Additionally, in the post-war period, there was a noted shift in how children were perceived by parents, with kids being increasingly sheltered and protected from, "all manner of harm both real and imaginary." All of these factors, and likely much more, primed parents to let confirmation bias turn whatever little anecdote and headline supported their narrative into fears spreading throughout their community.

And get those confirmations they did. The earliest example I could find (in Kawash's book) was a report of a 1959 California dentist who gave candy-coated laxative pills to trick-or-treaters; concerning for sure, but not exactly deadly. Snopes also has a treasure trove of these sorts of events. There is the 1964 report of  a house wife handing out inedible goodie bags to kids she thought were too old to be celebrating. Though she says she told the children it was a joke. Like the O'Bryan case above, the poison candy myth was used to obscure a case in 1970 of  Detroit 5-year-old Kevin Toston, who died of a heroin overdose. His parents told police that his Halloween candy was tainted. But upon further investigation, it was found that they had sprinkled heroin on the candy after Kevin got into his uncle's heroin stash in an attempt to mislead investigators. There is also of course the (non-Halloween) Tylenol Murders of 1982 - Where people actually died from a person randomly poisoning bottles of Tylenol brand acetaminophen. This definitely complicated the Halloween situation as there was now a legitimate concern for product tampering.

Compounding these, and many more, reports of alleged Halloween tampering is the media sensation that blew these situations out of proportion. As often happens, the sensational headlines of initial reports stick in people's minds more the the follow ups that clear things up. Additionally, opinion pieces spreading fears and misinformation compound issues even further. Even more concerning, is the DEA issuing warnings as recent as 2018 about drug-laced candy (as if anyone who spends that kind of money on recreational drugs is just going to give them away). Put quite simply, reports of candy tampering should raise your skeptical feelers; don't listen to the hype, get the real information.

So where does that leave the question; are there any founded reports of Halloween poisoning? The answer is a resounding no. There is simply no documented case of anything echoing the fears of parents nationwide. Halloween is my favorite holiday. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest things about being a child and a parent. For one night, you get to be someone you're not and let loose. The scary is celebrated and the spooky put on display. My advice to you: get frightened at a late-night corn maze, not at your kid's candy.