Want Something Really Spooky for Halloween? How About Marijuana-Shaped Candy?

Parents, picture this: your kid is opening a mostly green bag of candy. Nothing unusual, especially for this time of year, so you probably think nothing of it. Then, they take out a lollipop, and you take a second look: It’s shaped like a marijuana leaf. How would you react? City leaders, anti-drug activists and parents across the country aren’t sweet on this new candy.

Drugs Now Kill More People Than Car Crashes

Every 14 minutes, someone dies from drugs, according to a recent examination of government data by the LA Times. What’s worse is that attempts by experts to reverse this trend don’t seem to be working. Drug deaths, fueled by prescription pain and anxiety drugs, now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States,

This is the first time since the government started tracking drug-induced deaths in 1979 that drugs have killed more people than cars. Most cases of preventable death are declining. Drugs, however, are the exception. While teens and young people often abuse drugs, even, according to the mother one teen who died of an overdose, attending parties where pills are poured into a bowl and taken without knowledge of what they are taking, now people of all ages are suffering from drug-induced deaths. Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, yet the death toll is highest among people in their 40s, according to data from The Centers for Disease Control.