Kids Smoking Smarties?! That's Some Crazy Shizz!

A while back I wrote several entries about candy cigarettes, one of the staples of my childhood growing up in the '70s. Such a shocking candy! How could candy makers allow such a thing to exist? Did the candy versions promote smoking the real stuff? Scientific studies concluded that yes, they did glamorize smoking and therefore were evil.

Well my friends, leave it to the new generation to find something even more horrifying, more anarchist than candy cigarettes. Brace yourself: The Kids are "smoking" Smarties!

When I heard about this on a teaser for tonight's news, my first thought was that kids were crushing up Smarties and stuffing the powder into a pipe (or bowl or bong) and lighting up. Well, it's not *quite* so naughty. Apparently this is how it works: you take a roll of Smarties, crush them up in the package, inhale the dust and then blow it out your mouth and it looks like you're smoking. There's a fantastic how-to video here by 14-year-old Titus Williams (although he admittedly used Sassy Sours, a simliar product made by Copper Kettle Inc., which he says crush more easily).

Oh how I wish I was the reporter who broke this story. What a riot. Such a serious topic-- talking to the child "users," consulting doctors, consoling heart-broken parents. I've got to say, this has me laughing my Smartie Pants off. This article in the Wall St. Journal by Dionne Searcey is actually a really good piece of reporting. To wit:

"Last month, Mark Shikowitz, an ear, nose and throat doctor at
Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, N.Y., treated a boy about 9
years old who complained his nose was burning because of a Smarties incident.
(His parents brought in a Smarties wrapper but weren't sure how he'd ingested
them.) Dr. Shikowitz determined that part of a Smarties must have lodged in the
boy's nose until it dissolved. The child wasn't harmed."

AND:

"Oren Friedman, a Mayo Clinic nose specialist, cautioned that frequent use could
lead to infections or even worse, albeit rare, conditions, such as maggots that
feed on sugary dust wedged inside the nose."

Now that's something to get freaked out about.
So Yumsters, have any of you ever tried to smoke candy? Maybe snorted Pixy Sticks? Here's your chance to dish the dirt.