It is reasonable for parents to want to do everything they can to keep their children safe. Unfortunately, this desire for security can cause some parents to believe urban legends, and inaccurate news articles, regarding Halloween candy. Rest assured, there is no credible evidence of people handing out poisoned Halloween candy.
Snopes.com has put together a detailed history of the urban legend about poisoned Halloween candy. The most famous incident occurred in 1974. A father in Houston, Texas, intentionally purchased cyanide and used it to poison Pixie Stix. He gave one of the poisoned candies to his son, one to his daughter, and to three other children.
The son, who was eight-years-old, was the only child to die from the cyanide laced candy. The other children didn’t eat it. The boy died on October 31, 1974. The father was charged with murder and was given the death penalty.
The father clearly tried to make it look like the children obtained poisoned candy while trick-or-treating. But, that wasn’t true. This indicates that the urban legend about people handing out poisoned Halloween candy goes back farther than 1974.
In 1970, a five-year-old boy lapsed into a coma and died four days later of a heroin overdose. He found his uncle’s heroin stash and unintentionally poisoned himself. The family sprinkled heroin on the boy’s Halloween candy, in an effort to prevent police from charging the uncle with a crime. This shows that the urban legend about people handing out poisoned Halloween candy goes back farther than 1970.
You may have seen an article being passed around on social media claiming that people will pass out “edibles” to children on Halloween. Edibles are candy that is for adults that includes either THC or CBD as an ingredient. These marijuana candies are very expensive. Few people would have the income required to buy enough edibles to hand out to children on Halloween.
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