First medical myth I ever got interested in had to do with the idea of strangers poisoning Halloween candy It's apocryphal.

We made a whole video about it. You should go watch it.

But this week's show there's a whole new myth out there. Poisoning of kids with marijuana candy. OoOOooOOOoo It's not happening.

This is Healthcare Triage News. I have to acknowledge Christopher Ingraham over at the Washington Post who's all over marijuana news in general, including this topic. He points us to a number of headlines that have shown up in the news in recent weeks.

The Tampa Patch "Parents

Beware: Those Gummy Bears In Your Child's "Halloween Bag Could Be Edible Marijuana" KCRA Channel 3 in Sacramento California. "Heads

Up: "That Candy Treat May Be a Marijuana Edible" MassLive. "Police Ask Parents to Inspect Halloween Candy "for Possible Marijuana-laced Products" WRAL North Carolina. "Authorities Concerned About Candy That Could Get Kids High" The news I grew up on. I can still sing the theme song. I kid you not, the band that played it actually performed at one of my friends' bar mitzvahs. It's Channel 6 Action News in Philadelphia. "New Jersey Officials Warn of Marijuana-laced Candy" They do this every year.

Started in 2014 when legalization kicked into gear. The Denver police put out a video explaining to parents how to watch out for pot candy. And guess what.

Never happened. No confirmed cases. Not one.

Christopher Ingraham wrote an article after Halloween 2014 that was titled "You're more likely to catch Ebola than to receive marijuana-laced Halloween candy." And you're not gonna catch Ebola. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that no child has ever been mistakenly exposed to a pot brownie or candy. It happens.

But the danger, as always, is from within the house, not from strangers. People aren't putting (or wasting) their pot candy in the Halloween bowl. It's expensive.

For the cost of three and a half ounces of cannabis gummies, you can buy 20 pounds of regular old sugar gummies. That's what you're going to give to the neighborhood kids. Why does this matter? 'Cause it's ridiculous to fill our lives with fear.

One of our perennial themes on Healthcare Triage is that everything is awesome. It's so much safer out there in the world than pundits would have you believe. Strangers are not out to get you.

Moreover, it takes our eye off the ball. There *are* dangers out there on Halloween. Kids are two to four times more likely to get hit by accident and killed by a car than on any other night of the year 'cause their costumes are dark and they can't be seen.

Make a video about *that*. Don't waste time and money on phantom menaces. Look, we like to make videos like this, and we mention the word "pot" and then YouTube demonetizes it.

That's okay, we're gonna keep doin' it. But one way we get to keep doing the show is through a subscription service called patreon.com where viewers like you get to help support it. Go to patreon.com/healthcaretriage if you'd like to give us a hand.

And while I've got you we'd like to do some housekeeping. We'd really appreciate it if you subscribe to the show, perhaps "like" the video. It's also holiday season and we've got some great Healthcare Triage merch your friends might enjoy. hctmerch.com And my book comes out in less than a week!

The Bad Food Bible. Really appreciate it if you bought a copy.