During Halloween 2022 and 2023, there was a worldwide panic as news of a drug, fentanyl was found in candies, foods, drinks, etc. Worried parents looked through their children’s candy before allowing them to eat it to make sure there was no fentanyl in them. The struggle with finding the drug was that fentanyl is a tasteless, odorless, and colorless powder that is extremely hard to detect. No matter how hard parents searched, sometimes the fentanyl would still go unnoticed.

Rainbow fentanyl is a synthetic opioid made to trick small children into thinking the pills are candy allowing them to consume them without a thought. However, just one pill can be fatal. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. The illegal fentanyl became popular due to its stronger and similar morphine effects. Fentanyl can be made into pills, powder, or liquid. The liquid is commonly found in nasal sprays, eye drops, and even on paper. Overdosing on fentanyl, whether purposely or not, can result in extreme happiness, confusion, nausea, drowsiness, breathing problems, unconsciousness, and even death.

To be safe, look at your candy wrappers to make sure they do not have any small holes before consuming. Also, if your candy looks discolored, do not eat it. Do not accept homemade goods from people you do not personally know. Especially practice these around Halloween where it becomes easy for fentanyl to be snuck into candy without suspicion. Knowing the dangers of these drugs should make parents and children more self-aware of what they are taking from strangers and hopefully decrease the number of unwanted issues. So make sure to be cautious and stay safe.