Despite the number of urban legends that circulate every Halloween, there’s never been an actual recorded case of people handing out poison candy at trick or treat to kids. So what’s got people convinced that poisoners are lurking behind jack-o’ lanterns at trick or treat?
Why do police and hospitals check candy for worried parents? Most experts think it’s tied to two very real tragedies back in the 1970s.
One involved a child who died of a heroin overdose in Detroit in 1970. The child’s uncle claimed the boy received the deadly drugs in their Halloween candy, and the media ran with it. Investigators later learned the child found the drug at home and overdosed, a tragedy that’s all too familiar to our area.
A few years later, a child died after consuming cyanide in a Pixie Stick. It turned out the child’s father had murdered the boy for insurance money.
However, the facts didn’t stop national news magazines from running panic-inducing articles that convinced some communities to cancel trick-or-treat completely.
The truth is that the people most likely to hurt children are their parents. Something that our overburdened CPS workers could probably write a novel about.