Are Your Kids Smoking Smarties?

Jaimie Schmitz
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Kids find new things to get into every day and a dangerous fad has hit the local area.

The saying “kids will be kids” helps explain the odd and sometimes dangerous things kids do. For example, accidentally throwing a ball through a window, stock piling and eating too much candy, or, in some cases, even making poor choices involving illegal substances such as drugs or alcohol.
 
But now parents have to worry about a different sort of mischief involving candies which kids smoke.
 
That's right, some kids across the county are “smoking Smarties."
 
The small, tart candy is crushed up in a fine powder and then inhaled and exhaled to look like “smoke”.
 
Neligh Police Chief Mike Wright has known about this trend and wants to remind kids of the dangers that come with smoking Smarties.
 
“If it gets in their lungs, any little crushed sugar product, the sugar acts like little shards of glass.”
 
For years, various kids have posted videos online on how to smoke Smarties.  In the videos, the kids seem unfazed by the possibility of the dangers, and thus, the trend continues to grow and spread, and now it has reached rural areas.
 
“They just think it is no harm," said Chief Wright. "Just like some of those videos, I know that they have probably seen it, and they think there is nothing wrong with it, it is just candy. “
 
But Chief Wright reminds the public that this is not just candy.
 
“It can damage their lunges, it can lead to infections and respiration issues, chronic coughing, and even the ones who exhale out through their nose, even though it is rare, there have been an instance or two where there have been maggots in the kids nose because of the sugary substance.”
 
Although smoking Smarties doesn’t require kids to use fire to light anything, it could still be detrimental to future behavior.
 
“If they are doing this and they think it is cool, they effectually, when they get older, they could actually start smoking, or other harmful habits could come out of this.”
 
With the terrifying idea of maggots living in a child’s nose, parents should take action with their children and talk about it to let them know of the real dangers that is happening.
 
“Be aware and just communicate with their kids and make sure that they understand that even though they aren’t actually ‘smoking’ it, there is still harmful effects that can come from this.”

Other candies can be "smoked" or snorted to cause some of the same effects. Anything that is a powder, or can be crushed into a powder to be inhaled, can be dangerous.