Should Parents Be Worried About Rainbow Fentanyl This Halloween?

As Halloween approaches, parents face a terrifying spook from officials who say that fentanyl could be hidden in their children's candy baskets.

The warnings follow multiple high-profile seizures of fentanyl disguised as candy. On October 19, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported seizing 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills inside candy boxes labeled as Sweetarts, Skittles and Whoppers at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The suspected trafficker attempted to go through TSA screening with the bags of "candy" in tow.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told Newsweek the fentanyl seized in the LAX bust was hidden in candy wrappers for smuggling purposes, not in an effort to sell it directly to minors. However, he is among the law enforcement officers who recently issued a public warning for families to inspect their children's candy before anything is eaten this Halloween.

Two weeks earlier, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested an alleged trafficker with about 15,000 rainbow-colored fentanyl pills packed into a Lego box in New York City. Another 300,000 rainbow pills were seized from an apartment in the Bronx on October 12. In total, the DEA has reported seizing 10.2 million fentanyl pills between May and September 2022.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Just two milligrams of fentanyl—equal to 10-15 grains of table salt—is considered a lethal dose.

The DEA has described rainbow fentanyl as a scheme designed by Mexican drug cartels to market the deadly drug, disguised as candy, to children and young people.

"Rainbow fentanyl—fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes—is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults," said a statement from DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in August.

As Halloween creeps closer, fears of children consuming the drug have echoed from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

In an appearance on Fox News, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, "We're coming into Halloween. Every mom is worried right now, what if this gets into my kid's Halloween basket."

Democratic Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer joined in the alarm, holding up pictures of rainbow fentanyl alongside Sweetarts during a press conference last month.

"This is fentanyl, this is a Sweetart: you tell me the difference," said Schumer. "Halloween is coming...this is really worrisome and really dangerous."

However, some public health experts say the worries are far overblown. Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, told Newsweek that it's nothing new for traffickers to smuggle drugs in innocuous-seeming containers.

"The fact that some pills were apparently in candy packages is hardly proof that the pills were going to be given away to trick-or-treaters," said Best. "Why exactly would dealers give away product to small children who might consume them and die? Are they going to become addicts and then give the dealers their lunch money?"