Ahead of Halloween, Ashley Moody warns again of fentanyl in candy packaging

As Halloween looms, Florida’s Attorney General is again warning that parents need to talk with their kids about “terrifying” perils potentially posed by Trick or Treat.

“As long as fentanyl continues to flood into our state from the out-of-control Southwest Border, overdose deaths will increase — that is why it is so important that we talk to our kids about the dangers of drug use,” Ashley Moody asserted Monday, drawing a connection between the border crisis and one of a mother’s greatest fears.

“As a mother, it is terrifying that fentanyl is now being made in rainbow colors and transported in candy packaging. This Red Ribbon Week, please talk to your kids about drugs. Tell them, just one pill laced with fentanyl can kill,” Moody warns.

A video released by the Attorney General’s Office makes some of the same points, warning of a “skyrocketing increase in overdose deaths” driven by fentanyl, “laced into other substances, including counterfeit pills.” Moody urged parents to tell their kids to “just say no to drugs,” referring parents to the AG’s Dose of Reality website to find out more.

Moody previously has made the case that fentanyl could be packaged in ways that could tempt young people who encountered it unbeknownst. On Oct. 12, she offered Fox & Friends a warning about how transnational drug gangs are bringing in lethal narcotic cocktails, adding that some of these concoctions may take the form of popular candies.

“We’re seeing them put it in candy packaging, like Nerds packaging. And Halloween’s coming up and those of us with young children have to have these conversations and start learning about the fentanyl crisis and warning our children,” Moody said.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has warned about so-called “rainbow fentanyl,” an “alarming emerging trend of colorful fentanyl” designed to appeal to “children and young people.” There have been federal indictments on trafficking charges related to this trend.