Boo! Your (Halloween) weekend must reads🎃
Happy Halloween, Paste BN readers! I'm John Riley, editor of The Short List weekend edition✨. Today we're taking a break from the serious stuff and reveling in America's annual celebration of spooky. Put on your fright mask and grab your candy bag!😱
But first, on a serious note ...
No, rainbow fentanyl is not a Halloween trick
On Aug. 30, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration put out a PSA warning that illicit pills of the powerful opioid fentanyl were being dyed "to look like candy to children and young people." Soon after, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said in a Fox News interview that parents were worried that rainbow fentanyl pills were going to be in Halloween baskets, according to Joel Best, a criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware, who has spent decades studying the scare of tainted Halloween treats.
"This is idiotic," Best said. "Nobody's going to give it away to small children."
Best said in all his years of studying, he has found no evidence of poisoned or fake candy harming children on Halloween, aside from when a Texas father poisoned his son's Halloween candy in the 1970s.
If a parent has concerns, experts say, they can simply let kids have only packaged, branded candy.🍬
Enjoy these tasty Halloween reads
- What's your favorite? The most popular and hated Halloween treats by state🍫
- Candy corn: The Halloween candy that divides a nation🧡
- Dressing up: Google Trends lists the most popular Halloween costumes👻
- Let's all match: 20 group costume ideas🧛
- What to watch: New movies this Halloween weekend🦇
- Horror franchise: 'Halloween Ends' review: It's a bloody shame💀
- Halloween waste: How to be more sustainable this year🌕
- Spooky foods: Halloween charcuterie boards almost too spectacular to eat🍖
- Drink up: Halloween cocktails that are both spooky and delicious🍸
There are more terrific reads below.👇 Have a great weekend and a brilliant Halloween!🎃