New Drug in Schools Strawberry Quick Warning – Fact Check
Warnings online describe a new drug called Strawberry Quick (sometimes spelled Strawberry Quik) that is being handed to kids in school yards. The warnings claim it is actually a type of crystal meth designed to appeal to children.
MOSTLY FALSE
Internet warnings about spiked candy are a dime a dozen, and are especially prolific in the run-up to the ultimate candy-themed festival that is Halloween. This particular brand of “strawberry quick” scarelore has actually been proliferated across the corridors of social media since 2007.
When it comes to messages propagating the Internet concerning such a serious subject, it is always prudent to first put forth some disclaimers. Yes, drugs can occasionally take on the casual appearance of children’s candy. (Or sweets, to our fellow UK readers). And of course the advice in many of these warnings about teaching your children to never take candy from strangers – or take suspicious looking sweets from friends – is entirely rational. This is important advice to instill in any child to help them keep safe from the very real dangers of drugs.
Mandatory disclaimers aside, the majority of these warnings about “Strawberry Quick” are just nonsense, and have been spreading across the Internet trying to induce panic in parents for a number of years. Some examples follow.
New drug in Schools…
Please pass this on even if you do not have kids in school. Parents should know about this drug.This is a new drug known as ‘strawberry quick ‘.There is a very scary thing going on in the schools right now that we all need to be aware of.There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like strawberry pop rocks (the candy that sizzles and ‘pops’ in your mouth). It also smells like strawberry and it is being handed out to kids in school yards. They are calling it strawberry meth or strawberry quick.Kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy and being rushed off to the hospital in dire condition. It also comes in chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange.Please instruct your children not to accept candy from strangers and even not to accept candy that looks like this from a friend (who may have been given it and believed it is candy) and to take any that they may have to a teacher, principal, etc. immediately.Pass this email on to as many people as you can (even if they don’t have kids) so that we can raise awareness and hopefully prevent any tragedies from occurring..!!
Please Share To MaXimum to create awareness as it is realy helpful
collected May 2017.
ALL PARENTS PLEASE BE AWARE!! …There is a drug going around the schools …Its known as Strawberry Quick …or strawberry meth …it looks like pop rocks kids eat & also smells like strawberries & also comes in other flavors like chocolate etc … Please tell your children not to take candy from anyone even a class mate because this drug that looks like pop rocks is actually crystal meth rocked up with strawberry flavor & can kill them :`( …PLEASE RE-POST!!! so all parents are aware of this …Thank You! This is happening all over the country!!!! PLEASE PRAY FOR ALL THE CHILDREN!!
collected August 2009
Despite many of these warnings dressing themselves up as “breaking news” about a “new” or “trending” drug, the fact that these rumours warning of “strawberry quick” have been circulating the Internet since 2007 should alone be enough to dismiss those claims.
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Drugs come in all shapes and sizes, not only due to the wide range of drugs available, but different manufacturers process them and market them in different ways. As such, it’s certainly likely that many dangerous drugs have in the past been pinkish in colour and resembled children’s candy. Some isolated cases suggest that dealers have in the past tested different flavours to disguise undesirable tastes.
However the crux of the above rumours is that the crystal meth is being deliberately given a strawberry taste and look so it can be used to target children, and there is simply no evidence to suggest that this is the case. The Strawberry Quick brand of nonsense has been spreading for a number of years, and while it often successfully stirs up some tabloid hype, it’s ultimately been dismissed by authorities.
For example, Michael Sanders, a spokesperson from the DEA stated back in 2010 –
We checked with all of our labs, and there’s nothing to it..
It’s not a trend or a real problem; I think that this was maybe someone with good intentions but jumped the gun.
Another tell-tale sign that we often encounter with urban legends that survive the test of time and spread for years is the number of contradictory versions that are spawned over time. In this case, the number of different images that according to the warning depict the drug.
This image came attached to a Strawberry Quick warning back in 2008.
This very different image spread in 2017
And this image in 2018.
All the above images clearly depict starkly contrasting interpretations of the supposed drug, demonstrating another clear unreliability to the warnings. To add insult to injury, a 2018 version claims to also show the consequence of taking such a drug, as you can see below (we’ve blurred out a part of the image due to the graphic nature.)
However that injury has nothing to do with drug taking, and in fact shows a case of the Human Papillomavirus infection. (Warning: link shows graphic injuries.)
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The bottom line is that drugs can take on different appearances for a number of reasons – including different manufacturing processes, marketing efforts and efforts to avoid detection by law enforcement – but there is no evidence to support the persistent legend that drug dealers have opted to develop and market drugs exclusively to children by making them appear like candy, much less a candy called “strawberry quick”. And it should be noted how similar these warnings are to other [mostly] spurious claims that drug dealers are [inexplicably] handing out free drugs with Halloween candy
Of course, educated children about the dangers of drugs is vital work, and children should be made aware of the dangers of consuming suspicious items, especially if they come from strangers. But spreading alarmist and inaccurate information such as this only serves to distract from a serious subject matter, and we don’t recommend circulating such warnings.
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