Cannabis Not the Scariest Thing About Halloween, After All

Reefer madness is not just a hilarious syndrome of the past, as evidenced by its occasional resurfacing from time to time. Such an example was given when a “hysteria” swept various news outlets, claiming that parents should “beware” of cannabis infused edibles in their children’s Halloween haul.

Never mind the dangerous substance laced in every kid’s treats, the media had created a fear of children succumbing to the plot of evil cannabis consumers, who, for reasons that remained unclear, would surely want to dose their poor kids unwittingly with their expensive cannabis candies.

Well, the ghoulish holiday came and went, so how did these scary stories hold up? Turns out, surprise surprise, this was just another case of good old fashioned reefer madness. The Children’s Hospital Colorado reported there were no accidental pot consumption incidents from Halloween night.

While this is great news of course, and may come as no surprise to those in cannabis culture, there unfortunately is something for trick-or-treaters to fear on Halloween night, and it’s not witches, goblins or monsters — it’s motorists.

Across the nation from Arizona, to California, to Florida came reports of tragic accounts of trick-or-treaters being struck by motorists. Many of these drivers were likely under the influence of alcohol, as it was reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that in 2012, almost half of all Halloween motorist deaths involved a drunk driver. Halloween, it turns out, is one of the top three days for pedestrian injuries and fatalities, due to the greatly increased number of pedestrians in the form of trick-or-treaters.

Thus, Joe Hodas, a spokesman for a Denver-based edibles manufacturer called Dixie Elixirs, summed it up well when he said, “While it is of course great to feel vindicated as an industry that no kids were given marijuana candy illegally, we are first and foremost members of our own communities – we are neighbors, families and friends. As such, when I woke up to check the news this morning to make sure that our worst fears had not somehow materialized, there was no sense of relief, but rather it was sadness for all of the horrible auto accidents that had occurred overnight.”