Today the YALSA blog featured a post on Smoking Smarties referring to this New York Times article:Just Say No....to Smarties? Faux Smoking Has Parents Fuming
Crush Candy, Suck In Dust, Blow Out Puffs; Schools Fear It'll Make Cigarettes Cool
Apparently this is a trend somewhere...hard to say if it is widespread or if the media is just blowing it up. Teens crush up Smarties and pretend the dust is smoke. Or snort them, in a clear reference to hard core drugs. Some teens argue it is a healthy alternative to smoking/drugs, and of course parents/school/doctors are freaking out. Seems to me this should be enough to dissuade any reasonable teen:
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.
EW!
But is this really about reasonable teens? Or is it just those kids who are trying to get a rise out of adults. I remember obnoxious peers doing similar things with crushed up Cheetos/candy/sugar packets when I was a teen. Is this really a threat to society? Or just another case of teens successfully freaking out adults over nothing?
If nothing else, it can be a great conversation starter with teens in your library!
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