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Joe Rogan, Dr. Phil push dangers of rainbow-colored Fentanyl to kids, despite media downplay

October 31, 2022 | | Print Article

Be it masking, lockdowns, experimental pharmaceuticals or irreversible surgeries, progressives have an unsettling record when it comes to taking measures in the name of protecting children.

When it came to a heightened risk from rainbow-colored fentanyl on Halloween, Dr. Phil McGraw refused to play the left’s game of semantics, asserting, “I don’t care if you use the word targeting or not…”

Early on in the response to COVID, it became readily apparent that children were at low risk from the virus. Each death was undoubtedly a tragedy, but with drastic measures taken to prevent further occurrences of these statistically anomalous incidents, corporate media’s attitude about fentanyl’s risk to minors is baffling to say the least.

Friday, Dr. Phil joined “The Joe Rogan Experience” where he touched on the issue with the podcast host and said, “What they’re doing now, Joe, is they’re putting them in these pastel colors…They’re making them look like these candies that the kids get. And kids are gonna see these things around and pick ’em up and think they’re like SweeTarts or whatever and bite into ’em.”

“If I was a parent,” he advised, “I would go to the store and buy every kind of candy I could find and as soon as my kids came home from trick or treating, I would take their pumpkin and dump it into the trash and then fill it back up with candy I knew was good and hand it back to them. I wouldn’t let them take a single piece of candy from trick or treating ’cause you don’t know what’s in there.”

Rogan acknowledged that there has always been an inherent risk in taking handouts from strangers and said, “That was always the fear right, when we were kids, is that someone’s gonna sneak in a razor blade into an apple.”

However, his producer interjected with an article from NPR and circulating rumors that there was no evidence the danger was real as Rogan read off part of the headline, “‘Experts say no.’ Who’s the expert?”

The host then began reading from the article aloud, “‘It looks like candy,’ DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told NBC News. ‘In fact some of the drug traffickers have nicknamed it Sweet Tarts, Skittles.’ The DEA alert didn’t mention Halloween, but fears about ‘rainbow’ fentanyl and the holiday went viral.”

“Drug policy experts contacted by NPR agree there’s no new fentanyl threat this Halloween,” Rogan continued. “Many are also skeptical of the DEA’s original warning. They don’t believe Mexican drug cartels and street dealers have launched any new campaign targeting children.”

The dismissive attitude of the article was too much for Dr. Phil who reacted, “I don’t think they’re targeting children. I think the fact that they are making these things in pastel colors make children vulnerable to picking these things up–you wanna argue over the word ‘targeting.'”

“I’m not saying they’re targeting,” he said. “I don’t care if you use the word targeting or not, it’s dangerous. And I’m just saying–you know, my grandkids, they won’t be getting any candy out of that and it’s not that anywhere they’re going is gonna be givin’ out fentanyl to kids. It’s just they don’t know where, where it’s comin’ from.”

As he went on to note, even one pill laced with fentanyl can contain a fatal dose and the problem is not just on the U.S.-Mexico border as in September the Justice Department announced a seizure by the DEA of 15,000 fentanyl pills disguised in Nerds candy boxes and Skittles candy bags in Connecticut.

Upon the seizure, U.S. Attorney Vanessa Avery released a statement that read in part, “Trafficking fentanyl is already and undoubtedly a serious offense, but one doesn’t have to stretch their imagination too far to consider how disgusting fentanyl pills in children’s candy packaging, as we allege, can result in even more tragic consequences in the community.”

NPR doubled down on their downplay and released another story titled “Unfounded fears about rainbow fentanyl become the latest Halloween boogeyman.”

“Forget horror movies, haunted houses or decorations that seem a little too realistic. For many, paranoia around drug-laced candy can make trick-or-treating the ultimate scare,” the article began.

University of Delaware professor of criminology and criminal justice Joel Best said his research has never produced “any evidence that any child has ever been killed, or seriously hurt, by a treat found in the course of trick-or-treating.”

To that point, Rogan reminded, “You’re not getting it from a store.”

Republican lawmakers refused to be as overly dismissive as NPR seemed and released a public service announcement on potential danger with an accompanying press release that read, “Rainbow fentanyl comes in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes including pills, powder, and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk…All it takes is one pill or enough powder to fit on the tip of a pencil to poison and kill someone. Over the past two years 10 tons of fentanyl has been seized at our Southern border. Of course, we know much more made it across the border and into communities like yours undetected.”

“By working together and being on high alert this Halloween,” the release added, “we can help put an end to the drug traffickers that are driving addiction and poisoning our neighbors and children.”

Kevin Haggerty
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