Before you trick-or-treat, consider: Is sugar a gateway drug? | Cafe Society | Denver | Denver Westword | The Leading Independent News Source in Denver, Colorado
Navigation

Before you trick-or-treat, consider: Is sugar a gateway drug?

Trick-or-treating always seemed so harmless. Sure, candy isn't great for your teeth -- but are those little morsels of sugary-goodness more sinister than we ever imagined? A common argument against marijuana is that it's a "gateway drug" -- but what if Halloween candy is, too? After all, long before candies...
Share this:
Trick-or-treating always seemed so harmless. Sure, candy isn't great for your teeth -- but are those little morsels of sugary-goodness more sinister than we ever imagined? A common argument against marijuana is that it's a "gateway drug" -- but what if Halloween candy is, too? After all, long before candies were strung together to create thongs, they were made into cigarettes and suspicious powders -- treats resembling harder, more dangerous drugs.

To help save your children from a future in which they grow up thinking that pot tastes like candy and not lawn, here are our top five indications that sugar is a gateway drug:

1. Ring Pot: We've warned you about them before; let's not even pretend to ignore what's going on here. There word "legalize" is printed right on the bag -- and who, other than a stoner, would wear a beanie like that?

2. Candy Cigarettes: While it might seem cute to dress up a kid as Humphrey Bogart and stick a pack of these incredibly life-like confections in his pocket, think twice. Pretty soon, sucking on a stick of bland, starchy sugar will turn the kid into a real smoker -- and nobody wants a hipster in the family. 3. Wax bottles: These are probably what took down the great writers of the early twentieth century. Just imagine an adolescent Oscar Wilde finding his first wax bottle -- and look where that got him: ending his life in a slop-house in Paris. How un-American. 4. Pixie sticks: Just wait for when they expect a cocaine high to be like a sugar one. 5. Pop Rocks: While crack crystals certainly have a different effect, "fruity, surprising and bubbly" sounds like a pretty good DARE-esque drug description, doesn't it?

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Westword has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.