If you ask an older adult in your life, they can probably recall a time they were warned of the razor blades in Halloween candy. It’s a cyclical scare tactic. A new public enemy emerges every 5 years or so, and threatens the livelihood of children…through Halloween candy?

It’s not hard to see that this seems far-fetched. According to Scientific American, no childhood deaths have been reported due to contaminated halloween candy since the  studies’ initiation in 1958.  Unsurprisingly, mainstream news outlets avoid this due to the obvious lack of evidence. This year, we see a drastic shift in fear mongering.

Opioids have been an epidemic in the US for decades now-so it’s no surprise that when any news surrounding fentanyl surfaces, it catches fire. But at the end of the day, Halloween and the Rainbow Fentanyl crisis is just a bunch of misinformation.

Within the last week, the DEA has raised a nationwide panic about the possibility of Halloween candy tampered with opioids, and more specifically rainbow fentanyl masquerading as small tart candies. But it seems even the DEA is missing a crucial part of the picture. According to an NPR interview with Dr. Sheila Vakharia, head of research for an addiction think-tank called the Drug Policy Alliance, the coloring of the fentanyl is just an organizational method. 

Essentially, each brightly colored product is marked as such to classify it as a certain type. This is to differentiate it from other types of street drugs, and make it easier for dealers to sort through. Furthermore, no evidence of fentanyl-related child death has surfaced, even after almost a month of the DEA warning.

Local drug enforcement and police haven’t seemed to have an issue either, as one report from Local News Fox43 says no traces of the drug have been found in Pennsylvania yet.

Despite all this, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have proliferated the warnings delivered by the DEA. On September 20th, during an interview with Fox, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel declared, “Every mom in the country is worried, what if this gets into my kid’s Halloween basket?” Other lawmakers and news commentators also suggested that parents might want to protect their children by not letting them go trick-or-treating this year. Democratic lawmaker Chuck Shumer evolved this into a bipartisan issue when supporting statements given by the same people mentioned above.

Given all this information, it’s vital to know both the smaller and bigger picture surrounding this issue. It’s no doubt that fentanyl and other opioids are dangerous, not to mention a massive problem in America, but it’s important to recognize scare tactics and misinformation, especially when they surround an already hot-button issue. Because as clearly demonstrated, elected officials on both sides of the political aisle can fall victim to such an issue. 

All in all, there is very minimal, if any, truth to the rainbow fentanyl Halloween crisis. It’s still safe to trick or treat, and there have been no reports of the drug noticed in the state of Pennsylvania as of October 23rd. It is, however, important to be vigilant against misinformation, as it is an epidemic, plaguing the age of information.