Herschel Walker, NFL Hall of Fame running back and Georgia Republican Senate candidate claimed that “the people in China and Mexico” are disguising fentanyl as candy to hand out to children on Halloween.
Walker was speaking to supporters in Dalton, Georgia, on Monday when he made the unfounded claim.
"Halloween is right around the corner and now the people of China and Mexico are dressing fentanyl up to look like candy,” Walker told the crowd. “So, I want you to be very vigilant when you're taking your kids on Halloween, because there's a new war in town and that war is China, because China don't like us.”
The claim that fentanyl is being slipped into Halloween candy has been repeated in the media and by some lawmakers, but Walker's claim that it comes from “the people in China and Mexico” appears to be new. The vast majority of smugglers are US citizens who cross legal ports of entry and are not immigrants from Mexico, China, or elsewhere.
There is also scant evidence that drug dealers, US citizens or otherwise, hide their products in Halloween candy.
The drugs in Halloween candy legend goes back decades in the United States, but there has never been a documented case of a child being killed or seriously injured by candy picked up while trick-or-treating. The alleged practice has gained the name “Halloween sadism,” though it doesn’t seem to exist.
University of Delaware Professor Joel Best studied data going back to 1958 to see if he could find any cases backing up the fears behind “Halloween sadism.” Best was unable to find evidence that the practice exists.
“I can't find any evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating,” Best wrote for Scientific American.
The non-phenomenon may be able to trace back its origins to a case in 1974 when Ronald O’Bryan gave cyanide-laced pixie sticks to five children, including his own. The other four children did not eat the pixie sticks, but his eight-year-old son did, who soon died. O’Bryan was convicted of murder and was executed by lethal injection in 1984.
The fear also seemed to get a boost in the 1980s after someone – or a group of people – placed cyanide-laced acetaminophen into Tylenol bottles and placed them on store shelves which were then sold. Seven people died and the murders were never solved.
Still, no children have been killed or seriously injured from candy given to them by strangers on Halloween. The Drug Enforcement Agency released a report recently that said that “rainbow colored” fentanyl had been seized and is being targeted at children, but provided no evidence that the drug was being sold or marketed to children. Drug dealers are known to colorize and brand their drugs to differentiate them from wares from other dealers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 80,816 people died in the US due to opioid overdose in 2021. Fentanyl is considered by many to be the most dangerous drug in the opioid category and as little as 2mg can be fatal, though that can vary based on the size and tolerance of the user.
Herschel Walker is running against Democrat Ralph Warnock for the Senate seat in November’s midterms. It is one of a few seats considered up for grabs and could swing the balance of power in the Senate.