Why is the standard of safety with Halloween candy different than stuff at clubs, etc?

Because the people who won’t eat unwrapped candy are suburban parents keeping their kids from eating them. These parents usually spend great amounts of time and money protecting against every possible danger, no matter how unlikely. Many even get more stressed out over worrying than something happening would cause, and more money preventing something from happening than they would actually loose. The rave goers are, well, rave goers, there specifically to ingest toxic and poisonous things in hopes of getting a good buzz on.

Plus, when was the last time you went Trick Or Treating, came home with an unwrapped Tootsie Pop, and found that you couldn’t afford to err on the side of caution? And when was the last time you went to a rave and didn’t have any clue that the night end badly?

Probably because people at parties and raves are risk-takers seeking immediate gratification, with a disregard for potential long-term effects, and are hoping the candy is tampered with, whereas individuals who purchase wrapped candy are expecting a sugar buzz and nothing more.

I think maturity has something to do with it. children will eat just about anything,especialy if its sweet. in other words, they do not think before they act.

Adults, on the other hand, are suppose to be mature enough to make these decisions for themselves.

It probably dates back to the Tylenol/cyanide scare of the early 1980’s. People may have some abstract idea that stuff at raves/parties/etc. might be harmful, but there’s an actual concrete tragedy that they can remember with respect to Halloween.

I think it’s because nobody wants to take a risk with their children. I do agree that some people take it to the extreme, however. My mom’s basic rules were always to never eat stuff that had been opened or to go into someone’s house. However, I had friends who were not allowed to eat anything in a “loose” wrapper such as tootsie rolls, necco wafers, basically anything where the candy wasn’t sealed. I remember I would always volunteer to take the bullet for them but they would just throw the candy away.

Also, doing drugs is a risky thing anyway. It’s not as if someone taking ecstasy thinks it’s m&m’s.

The urban legend about poisoned Halloween candy is so pervasive that most people seem to think it is actually true. The only child known to have died from poisoned Halloween candy was given the tainted candy by his father, who wanted to collect life insurance on the child. Most cases of needles or razors in candy or other Halloween treats turned out to either be hoaxes or could just not be confirmed. Google it, look it up on Snopes. There’s really nothing to worry about if you have even a modest amount of common sense.

I don’t know why anyone would risk popping anything in their mouth at a party or rave if they didn’t know what it was. Sounds very stupid to me, but then again, a lot of people are willing to take risks that I would never consider.

That being said, this suburban parent can’t wait to take the kiddos from strange house to strange house on Halloween. I’m such a rebel, I let them eat candy before we get home and only give their loot a cursory inspection as I pick out the things they need to share with Mommy. Not all “suburban parents” are the morons we’re made out to be by non-suburban parents, and judging by the number of other children (some aren’t even with adults! the horror!) we see out trick-or-treating on Halloween the image of the overprotective parent destroying Halloween is completely overblown. OK, putting away my soapbox now.

@MissAusten: I definitely agree that some parents are wildly overprotective. My mother would go trick-or-treating with me because she had fun too but she never worried if I was with another parent and, like I said, she had two rules. Don’t go into people’s house and don’t eat stuff that’s clearly been opened. I do like how there are a number of safe trick-or-treating plans for really little kids, though. At the mall where I work, there will be trick-or-treating from 11am to 1pm on Halloween and I think that’s a really great idea for tiny kids. Honestly, would you want to deal with a bunch of sugared up 4-year-olds at 10 o’clock at night? It’s also an opportunity for the kids to show off their costumes to many more people which I’m sure can’t hurt. :)

Then again, working at a mall, I see a lot of parental negligence. I see a lot of young kids wondering around sans parents but with large sums of money. What a ten-year-old is doing with a hundred dollar bill without an adult is beyond me.

We know a kid in a coma because of something they took that was given to them by someone they knew. For some reason, there’s a sense that, if you know the person, it must be safe to take or use. Just like boys whose parents are doctors won’t give you an STD.

@MissAusten I certainly didn’t mean to imply all parents in the suburbs are that way. I was talking more about parents who fall into the stereotype.

Its all about pay off. I mean the candy thing what does one get out of it for the risk theyre taking? Oh joy some sugar. Vs the rave example where theyre taking MDMA or something to that effect.

I’m confused. How are you concluding that people not eating unwrapped candy are the same people who take wahtever is handed to them at a party? It sounds like two entirely different demographic groups.

It is….

@john65pennington children will eat just about anything,especialy if its sweet. in other words, they do not think before they act. And some one coming out of the mens room at a club or a rav and having someone hand them a pill and telling they need to take it to expand their experience and not asking questions to what it is and where it came from is?

@KatawaGrey However, I had friends who were not allowed to eat anything in a “loose” wrapper such as tootsie rolls, necco wafers, basically anything where the candy wasn’t sealed. Did they ever allow their kids to go to any Halloween parties where there were goodies served? If they are worried about what might get in their kids mouths what better way for someone bent on doing devilment would have then a costume party? The perp don’t even have to be an invited guest, everyone is in a mask so if it were one of those larger gigs like the Lions Club, Boys & girls club, etc all they have to do is make it to the ricecrispy treats or the punch bowl and it is all over. With so many hands having access to it how can anyone be fingered unless they slipped and was seen? Looks good to toss anything in a wrapper but false sense of security if you ask me.

@Trillian I’m confused. How are you concluding that people not eating unwrapped candy are the same people who take wahtever is handed to them at a party? It is not that they are the same people. The wisdom or lack of it in putting something in your mouth you don’t know what it is from strangers you don’t know can have terrible consequenses but even more so at a rav. If it were tainted candy you know what naighborhood you were in and more or less which streets you were on, not some faceless guy or gal with a fist full of pills in the dark.

@Hypocrisy_Central: They wouldn’t let their kids eat without washing their hands first. The parents were wildly over protective and, quite frankly, they probably would not have let their kids eat anything at a party unless they themselves made it.

heyyyyy the only way to build a good immune system is putting shit in your body that doesnt belong there :P

@Hypocrisy_Central “If people won’t eat unwrapped Halloween candy because they are afraid what has been done to it, why would they pop something unwrapped in their mouth ”
Let’s break this down. If people…, why would they…? Your statement makes them one and the same. You can’t come along later and say; “It is not that they are the same people.” because you clearly stated that they are.
Why is people not wanting to eat something so offensive to you? People choose every day what they will and won’t put into their mouths. Why are you bothered by this? A vegetarian chooses not to eat meat. Ooooo, are you offended? They don’t want an unwrapped cow. I fail to understand why people are so ready to start bashing ohers for their personal preferences, and why they are so ready to make negative ipso facto assumptions.
Who gives a shit if someone doesn’t want to eat what the fuck ever? Why take it to such a rdiculous extreme and use for an example, (of all the ridicuous things) people at raves taking whatever the fuck pill is handed to them as if they are the same and therefor contemptible? I submit that a person who would not eat unwrapped food is by definition a person who would not go to a rave and take drugs that were being passed around.

yeaa id have to agree with you there. Im the opposite. I will eat unwrapped candy. And welll raves…. I dont think i really even need to address that part :P

@Trillian “If people won’t eat unwrapped Halloween candy because they are afraid what has been done to it, why would they pop something unwrapped in their mouth” People in general. What is so strange with the logic of that? It would be like saying those who build and use pyrotechnics shouldn’t be wise enough not to check to see if gas is in the tank with a lit match?

Why is people not wanting to eat something so offensive to you? No, if your powers of clairvoyance told you that one it could not be more wrong or maybe it could. The point is you have people (in general) who would not eat anything that was unwrapped but would be way lax in a potentially risky. Do some of those people who go to ravs and stick anything in their mouths go out tricks or treats with family members? Almost certain they do. And I bet those that do won’t eat any candy that was unwrapped thinking something deadly will happen to them.

Would you call sticking anything in your mouth safe just because it is a rav or at a club that some how it has to be fun and not dangerous? And you will say it is less dangerous to do than unwrapped candy? If you can prove that, I will say no more. When I see a Snickers bar and I open it up at least I know more than not if it looked like the real deal. Some person tells me the little white pill is this or that and will take my mind here or there who is to tell what it is? Could you? Could you tell if it was aspirin, cyanide, an antacid, or a rat pellet? If you can’t tell right off the bat then why would you stick it in your mouth? You would trust some stranger you never seen in life who is have stoned that what he is giving you is safe and will just help your mind expand? If you believe that I have some land in Florida to sell you cheap, just remember you can only step on it twice a day when the tide is low and don’t forget your gator gun.

You are talking in circles and fail to address the issue. You said that the poeple who won’t eat unwrapped cansy would then turn around and eat a drug given to them at a rave. I am tellng you that those are two separate and distinct groups of people. And what the fuck is it to you if people don’t want to eat unwrapped candy?
Once again, you’re making shit up in your head and trying to have an entire fcelss group of people to be annoyed with. Over nothing. Have at it, I have shit to do.

@Trillian I still didn’t hear you say you would put pills in your mouth from some stranger (I guess you pass on any Halloween candy you come across)? If not why? You would not be afraid it would harm you, right? No wrapper is the same as a loose wrapper or tightly wrapped by the argument you less than eloquently try to say. You can all ways toss out a few more cuss words then go have some ice cream I guess, that is if you have no answer to if you’d trust some person outside the rest room well enough to pop whatever they tell you into your mouth because it will make your night better?

@Hypocrisy_Central the people I know who wont eat unwrapped candy wouldnt even consider taking drugs, let alone those from a complete stranger. I find the inverse to be true as well. Do you have anything suggesting otherwise? Do you know someone personally who wont touch unwrapped candy but is all about takin E? I highly doubt it personally…

@uberbatman I know and have met quite a few that would do just that and thought I was as unwise as they to do the same. I don’t care what great experience some little pill is suppose to bring me, they can tell me I will have immortality if I took it, but I will be damned if I do when it comes from some dude in the mens room telling me that it is when I have never seen him before in life. I might live forever or dye foaming at the mouth in the next 5 minutes…....I know my chances of living longer not dying with a mouth full of foam goes way up not putting the pill in my mouth.

@Hypocrisy_Central You, yourself are excluded from your question since your obviously not willing to take said pill. But I suppose since you know a few people that do this then fine. Just dont think this is any kind of norm. Those few you knew were definitely exceptions to the rule.

@uberbatman At several points in my life I have loosly known people who would go to the “set” to buy whatever to party with. They thought nothing of buying a dime bag of this, a nickle bag of that from some guy standing on the corner in the shadows of from some car parked out of the way. They are told it is E, smack, blow, whatever and they believe it, fork over their money and be off for a night they believe will be a fun mind blowing time. None of them that I know of would raid the Halloween candy haul and eat anything whos wrapper looked suspect. Ask them what is the difference from candy with half the wrapper off and something in a baggie handed to you by some dude on the corner they can’t come up with anything why the candy poses more risk than what is in the baggie or what is in the baggie is more true to what it is suppose to be. If you open a Tootsie Roll you know what it suppose to look like. Some white rocked up substance in a baggie could be anything, and it might be too late when you find out what you thought you bought was not what you had.

Don’t include me in your inane, ridiculous assumptions. I woud eat the candy and I would not take the drugs.
Run along and talk to your friends who think or do these things you claim. They are the same poeple that you know that think that unsupportable stuff about rich haters. Y’all should get on like a house on fire.
You still havent actually shown us and people who do both, and that was your original assetion/question; Why would people eat pills passed out at a rave but not unwrapped candy?
The answer is; those people exist only in your fevered imagination.

@Trillian You still havent actually shown us and people who do both, and that was your original assetion/question; Why would people eat pills passed out at a rave but not unwrapped candy? And you have not shown that people who have kids that go tricks or treats or have access to Halloween candy that won’t eat it if its not wrapped right also avoid popping anything at a rav. If you can go to a club and be smart enough not to put whatever from whoever in your mouth, great for you. (clap clap) Maybe you ought to go teach a lot of those other buttheads they should use as much diligence in the club as they would in their own home halloween night and later.

People I meet and know think for themselves even if it is wrong, we don’t have a hive miind. If you and all your friends are lock step in agreement on everything, bully for you. A lot of people aren’t clones of eachother’s thoughts.