They can’t get anybody high, but Smarties are latest ‘drug craze’

By David McElroy · December 26, 2011

There’s apparently a new fad in drug addiction sweeping the country. Middle school students are grinding a product into fine powder and then snorting it into their noses — as certain older folks might do with cocaine. It has drug warriors all up in arms.

The “drug” in question is a candy called Smarties. They can’t get anybody high. They can’t cause problems of any sort other than the respiratory problems that you’d get from inhaling any sugar into your nose. So why is anyone considering this a “drug problem”?

A story in my local newspaper today quoted a “drug educator” as saying it’s a problem because it shows that kids are willing to try new things. No joke. It’s a “problem” that kids want to try things. A project coordinator with the Shelby County Drug Free Coalition Project Safe Place Programs of Family Connection — I’m not making that name up — had this to say:

“It shows that willingness to experiment and try different things. Later it may not be Smarties. It may be alcohol. It may be cigarettes. It may be marijuana.”

Can’t we just say that some kids are going to act like idiots no matter what we do? Some kids shove Froot Loops up their nose, too, but it’s not considered a drug problem. Can’t we be reasonable instead of turning everything into the modern version of “Reefer Madness“?

Nobody can accuse me of taking recreational drug use lightly. I think it’s a very shortsighted decision to use any recreational drug, whether it’s the illegal ones or the legal one that causes the most real-world problems — alcohol. I don’t use any drugs and plan to keep it that way. But can’t we have a sense of sanity in what we treat as a real threat? There are a lot of problems that face everybody — including kids — but the idiocy of a few kids stuffing sugar up their noses is something for sane parents to deal with, not for drug warriors to wring their hands about.

How long until some school bans Smarties and Pixy Stix? Or has it already happened and I just don’t know about it?

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I haven’t posted anything new in my YouTube series about narcissism in the last couple of weeks, so some people have been asking about it. There’s nothing wrong and I’ll be back soon. The issue is simply a technical problem because of a piece of equipment that died. Here’s a brief video I posted on YouTube to explain.

On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

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