In an apparent effort to sell more meth to children, drug dealers in various parts of the United States are marketing a mixture of methamphetamine and fruit-flavored drink powder as "Strawberry Quik." It looks like Pop Rocks. Link, Link 2. Not an urban legend.
Reader comment: William Gunn says,
There's no evidence meth is flavored to appeal to children, and there's no masking the taste.
On the contrary, there's an established tradition of drug dealers coloring
and styling their wares, as a brief look at http://www.ecstasydata.org/ will
make evident. The purpose of this is to create a reputation for a certain
"brand" of drug, allowing a dealer to promote his product over the other
guys."Pink champagne" meth(with residual red dye from sudafed tablets) is one
such brand and has been around forever. The rumor that "the pink stuff is
the good stuff" is almost certainly the inspiration for this. Also,
amphetamines are about the most vile thing you could ever taste, and a pinch
of Kool-Aid isn't going to change this.
Cory Stroik says,
I found the article on pop rocks combined with meth-amphetamine very interesting (what an odd combination?) I must say though, I felt a slight cringe when reading the first sentence "In an effort to sell more meth to children"
And I mean no offense by this, it would be a lot easier to sell candy to children then clandestinely produced powder, but really I cant see anything else that this implies that it was an effort to sell "to children"
There are several things that seem logical to me, for one wouldn't pop rocks look a lot less inconspicuous then a white powder? Drug dealers and smugglers have been using techniques like this for years to smuggle drugs. We've all heard of heroin lolipops, but of course those were not intended to actually be eaten as lolipops, just for smuggling.
Also, just because a drug comes in a form thats a bit more appealing by taste doesn't mean its aimed at children, we're all familiar with "hash brownies"
I also found the mention of "cheese" in one of the articles interesting, as I had heard it used before in an article also claiming somehow this introduces the drug to children, somehow. More likely it seems the inclusion of benedryl into heroin would be to offset the itchiness opiates cause, something opiate users have been doing since antihistamines have existed.
And the bigger question, why really would a meth dealer want to sell to school children? Wouldn't there be a much greater chance of a child getting caught and instantly telling where he got it from? Or worst yet, how much more likely is it for an 80 pound child to die from an overdose on meth? The whole thing just doesn't add up in that context.
So really, while this article is fascinating and true for the most part, to instantly jump to the conclusion that its "to get children hooked" seems more like the over sensationalized drama thats come out of the drug war.
