Snorting Smarties: New Trend Among Kids is Crushing Candies

Kids these days. You just never know what they're up to.

Yet in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, it looks like they might be snorting Smarties.

According to Boing Boing, parents received a disturbing letter from their children's school regarding this new trend that has kids allegedly crushing Smarties candy into powder in which they either snort it through their nose or "smoke" it by taking a mouthful and exhaling it through their nose.

"Dr. Oren Friedman, a Mayo Clinic nose specialist, has cautioned that frequent snorting could even rarely lead to maggots feeding on the sugary dust wedged inside the nose," the letter warned, according to local blogger John McDaid, who contacted Friedman to further discuss the possible health issue.

Unfortunately this is nothing new. As of 2007, snorting Smarties, Pixie Sticks and other candies has been floating around the web, according to Mommyish.

"I think we can all agree that nothing gets the Internet in a tizzy like the idea of kids shoving various substances up their noses, but the newest 'drug panic' is the most ridiculous," Mommyish's Frances Locke points out regarding stories of children allegedly snorting Crystal Light and aspartame.

According to the New York Daily News, just last year, 15 children at a Hamburg, N.Y., middle school were caught snorting smarties. A video show radio DJ from Z-104 in Madison, Wisc., was even seen snorting the powder live on air. (Great example to set! NOT.)

Many health and school officials believe the snorting of the candy glorifies the inhalation of illicit drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and smashed up prescription pills.

"If the Smarties do end up getting into the lung, then that can also cause infection," Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gail Burstein said, via the Sun News. "It is an irritant: it can cause wheezing and maybe chronic cough and asthma and sinus complications. And, ultimately, if someone is allergic to sugar or the contents of Smarties, then they could end up having an anaphylactic reaction and dying." 

Remember the good ole' days when kids just used to inhale glue? (Sigh.)