CA Parents Warned To Check For Drugs Disguised As Halloween Candy

CALIFORNIA — Authorities are urging parents to be vigilant this Halloween to ensure that contaminated treats or narcotics mixed in with candy don't make it into the hands of young trick-or-treaters.

Warnings came from state and local authorities after someone attempted to smuggle some 12,000 fentanyl pills disguised in bags and boxes of candy at Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 19, according to multiple reports.

"With Halloween approaching, parents need to make sure they are checking their kids candy and not allowing them to eat anything until it has been inspected by them," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department advised. "If you find anything in candy boxes that you believe might be narcotics, do not touch it and immediately notify your local law enforcement agency."

What's more fentanyl pills are often pressed into the colors of the rainbow, giving them a candy-like appearance.

READ MORE: Teen Overdose Tragedy Prompts LA Schools To Get OD Reversal Drug

"This is deliberate, this is calculated, this is treacherous deception to market rainbow fentanyl-like candy," Frank Tarentino of the Drug Enforcement Agency told WVTM 13. "This is every parent’s worst nightmare."

Authorities do not believe the LAX incident was meant to target children, parents are urged to check their children Halloween treats to ensure illicit products have not accidentally been mixed in.

Recommendations include:

• Trick or treating in groups, accompanied by parents or Only approaching well-lit homes that have their porch lights on; and
• Discarding open candy packages or any other treat that looks suspicious.
• The complete list of recommendations is available here.

Parents are also urged to look out for "fake pills" which are made to look like OxyContin, Xanax, Adderall and other pharmaceuticals. The DEA offers this pamphlet which advises how caretakers can check these pills.

At the state level, the California Department of Public Health warned parents about the dangers of children consuming hemp-derived products containing tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, which can look similar to common candies or baked goods such as gummies, lollipops and brownies.

If consumed by children, they can cause adverse reactions, the CDPH said.

"Children exposed to hemp-derived manufactured food products, such as cannabidiol (CBD) candies, has increased and parents should be aware of the dangers," according to the CDPH advisory. "These products may be mislabeled as hemp-derived and contain varying amounts of intoxicating cannabinoids. The number of children who are eating these products is increasing, with higher frequencies of incidents in states where the use of these products is legal."

Children who eat these products may exhibit symptoms including sleepiness, fatigue, diarrhea, seizures in toddlers, slurred speech, vomiting or difficulty breathing.

State officials offered the following tips for those who have edible cannabis products at home:

• Store them out of reach or in locked locations;
• Don't these products in front of children
• Check children's candies collected during Halloween and if anything looks suspicious, throw it out.

Last month, officials announced that a drug to reverse overdoses will now be stocked at K-12 campuses within the Los Angeles Unified School District. The news came a week after a student was found dead in a Bernstein High School bathroom.

The drastic move to provide the medication, naloxone or "Narcan," across more than 1,400 schools marks a significant step for the nation's second-largest school district toward addressing the dangers of fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 80-100 times more powerful than morphine.

Dr. Brian Hurley of the Los Angeles County Health Department described the situation as the "worst overdose epidemic in the United States history and the worst overdose epidemic in Los Angeles County history," he told the LA Times.

Hurley is an addiction psychiatrist and the medical director of the county health department’s division of substance abuse prevention.

“And a lot of that is attributable to this high potency opioid fentanyl that’s found its way into illicitly manufactured pills and to other drugs of abuse,” he said.

City News Service contributed to this report.

READ MORE: OC Teen Dies Of Accidental Fentanyl Overdose, Mother Says: Report