I think we need to create a fun new internet game. First we make up a bunch of alarmist concerns and wacko conspiracy theories about drugs being slipped into our prescription medicines or Satanic brake lights leading to mild cases of driver possession, and then we post them on Facebook to see how many of these silly fantasies are eventually reported by local TV news stations as though they were actual news. The more ridiculous the better. Because any media group that will run with a story like this, will run with just about any twaddle you can dream up.
According to WREG:
Just three weeks from Halloween, and already, many of you are spooked by a post you saw on Facebook.
It asked parents to beware of criminals sneaking drugs disguised as candy into your children’s trick-or-treat basket.
The post has been shared hundreds of thousands of times across the country.
“I really truly believe somebody would do that,” said Memphis mother of three, Porsha Tate, who saw the post the other day.
While WREG seems to have had no trouble eliciting a quote from a credulous person-on-the-street they were unable to find any rational person to say something like, “Why would a druggie give away perfectly good $20-a-piece ecstasy pills to a bunch of snot-nosed kids?”
Even imagined as some kind of weird retail promotion, that’s quite an investment in Halloween treats. I mean, sure, it’s possible that a bunch of young candy-beggars might want to spend more of their allowance on the trippy stuff, but mom and dad still have to drive them for a fix. A police raid seems like the more likely result.
Besides, anybody who knows their MDMA history knows it’s almost always been stamped to bring out the inner child in even the most buttoned up former rave kid.
WTF WREG: The Making of a Halloween Season Drug Scare
There is a long history of Halloween-related media scares and hoaxes ranging from poisoning (complete codswallop), to sharp objects in apples and other unwrapped items (Documented but also debunked). This seems to be the latest iteration of the same basic urban myth.
