Claim:   Drug dealers are selling colored crystal methamphetamine known as "Strawberry Quick."

Status:   Multiple:.

• Some drug dealers sell colored crystal methamphetamine that coincidentally resembles "Pop Rocks" or other forms of candy:   True.
• Some dealers sell crystal methamphetamine that has been flavored in order to make it more appealing to children:   False.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, April 2007]

Drug Warning - Beware and please inform your children I have been alerted by one of our EMT's for our volunteer fire department that they have received emails from emergency responder organizations to be on the lookout for a new form of Crystalized Meth that is targeted at children and to be aware of this new form if called to an emergency involving a child that may have symptoms of drug induction or overdose. They are calling this new form of meth "Strawberry Quick" and it looks like the "Pop Rocks" candy that sizzle in your mouth. In it's current form, it is dark pink in color and has a strawberry scent to it. Please advise your children and their friends and other students not to accept candy from strangers as this is obviously an attempt to seduce children into drug use. They also need to be cautious in accepting candy from even friends that may have received it from someone else, thinking it is just candy.

Origins:   This warning about sweetened and flavored forms of methamphetamine began landing in inboxes in April 2007. "Strawberry Quick" (or "Strawberry Quik," named after strawberry Quik, a powder used to make flavored milk drinks) was first reported as appearing in the western states in January 2007. (Nevada holds the dubious honor of being the first state the substance was found in; its Department of Public Safety issued a bulletin about flavored meth seized during a 27 January 2007 search of a gang member's apartment in Carson City.) According to intelligence gathered by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents from informants, users, local police, and drug counselors, colored meth has also been found in California, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri, and Minnesota.

One DEA agent reported a red methamphetamine that had been marketed as a powdered form of an energy drink. Says DEA spokesman Steve Robertson, "Drug traffickers are trying to lure in new customers, no matter what their age, by making the meth seem less dangerous." The colored meth has been described as resembling rock candy or Pop Rocks (a kid-favored confection that fizzles in the mouth), and because it looks like candy, officials fear it may fool children and teens into mistakenly perceiving it as candy (or perceiving it as a drug far less dangerous and addictive than it actually is).

However, while colored versions of methamphetamine that resemble candy are certainly available, the claim that the drug is actually being sold in flavored versions is a subject of some dispute. (Police labs don't generally test drugs for flavoring ingredients, so some of the statements about seizures of flavored meth might have been based solely on the drug's brightly hued appearance and not on its actual taste.) Moreover, evidence that either coloring or flavoring is being added to meth for the express purpose of making the drug appeal to children is hard to come by. (It seems more likely that such factors, if present, are manufacturing errors, qualities incidentally inherited from ingredients used in manufacturing meth, or attempts at creating superficial 'brand' distinctions). Police reports of both aspects continue to appear, though, as in this October 2007 news article from North Carolina:

It sounds like an urban legend. But Sheriff James Williams has held it in his hand, and says it smells just like strawberries.

Crystal methamphetamine that looks like candy was found in the course of an arrest outside Lansing in September. "The methamphetamine seized in this case is a pink ice-looking substance and smells like strawberries," said Sheriff James Williams. "The Ashe County Sheriff’s Office has received intelligence information on this type of methamphetamine from the D.E.A. stating that it is being made to look like and smell like a strawberry candy, specifically to entice young teenagers."

In April 2007, U.S. Senators Feinstein and Grassley introduced legislation aimed at increasing the criminal penalties for anyone who markets or makes candy-flavored drugs by imposing upon them the same enhanced criminal sentences handed down to drug dealers who knowingly sell to minors. The Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act would alter federal law from its current state of requiring doubled (or tripled for a repeat offense) sentences for those caught selling illegal drugs to those under the age of 21 to imposing doubled or tripled sentences on anyone who "manufactures, creates, distributes, or possesses with intent to distribute a controlled substance that is flavored, colored, packaged or otherwise altered in a way that is designed to make it more appealing to a person under 21 years of age, or who attempts or conspires to do so." No longer would a dealer have to be caught red-handed in the act of selling to an under 21 for the doubled or tripled sentences to kick in; under the proposed refinement to current law, simply possessing flavored versions of street drugs would be enough. Also, by the lights of this rewriting of the law, manufacturers of flavored drugs would also be subject to doubled or tripled sentences.

There is one bit of good news in all this: Methamphetamine use is down for much of the country for the second year running. Researchers say it appears this latest meth epidemic reached its peak in 2004 and 2005, and data from the federal government shows the number of first-time meth users has steadily declined in recent years.

Let's hope that Strawberry Quick doesn't serve to reverse that trend.

Barbara "quick step backwards" Mikkelson

Update:   In June 2007 this version of a "strawberry meth" e-mail began landing in our inbox:

Checked this on Snopes and it is true

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/candymeth.asp

There is a very scary thing going on in the schools right now that all need to be aware of. There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like strawberry pop rocks. It smells like strawberry also and it is being handed out to kids in school yards in AR. I'm sure it will make its way around the country if it hasn't already. Kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy and being rushed off to the E.R. in dire condition.

It also comes in chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange — it looks just like pop rocks.

Please instruct your children to not accept candy that looks like this even from a friend and to take any that they may have to a teacher, principal, etc.

Please pass this around it could save some family a lot of heartache!

That is what they are calling strawberry meth or strawberry quick.

Thought you'd want to know.

The unknown author of that alert has it wrong — nothing we encountered in our research supports that person's allegations about the drug's "being handed out to kids in school yards" in Arkansas (or anywhere else) or that "kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy and being rushed off to the E.R. in dire condition." In all our research, we didn't come across a single news story about children who had ingested the substance because they mistook it for candy, whether they were subsequently treated at a hospital or not. Likewise, we have consistently failed to find anything that would support the claim that Strawberry Quick is being handed out in schoolyards. Both those claims appear to be the product of the e-mail writer's imagination.

In October 2007 the "updated" version was once again updated, this time dropping the "Checked this on Snopes and it is true" claim and adding in its place a "Halloween Warning for Parents" and the signature of a Homeland Security officer. But other than that, nothing changed — there were still no news stories about actual incidents supporting the updated version's claims of kids' being given the drug in school yards and being rushed to emergency rooms:

Halloween Warning for Parents

There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like strawberry pop rocks. It smells like strawberry also and it is being handed out to kids in school yards in AR. I'm sure it will make its way around the country. Kids are ingesting this thinking it is candy and being rushed off to the ER in dire condition.

It also comes in chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange. It looks just like pop rocks.

Please instruct children to not accept candy that looks like this even from a friend and to take any that they may have to a teacher, principal, etc.

Pass this around it could save some family a lot of heartache!

They call it strawberry meth or strawberry quick.

Special Agent Todd V. Coleman

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement
Direct Office Line (956) 753-4678
Office Fax Line (956) 753-4673

Calls to the number given above are answered by this recorded message:

You're reached Special Agent Todd Coleman, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. If you're calling regarding crystal meth information, that information is false and inaccurate. It was not distributed or originated with this office. Otherwise, leave a message.

Additional information:

	Methamphetamine Information   (DEA)
	InfoFacts: Methamphetamine   (National Institute on Drug Abuse)

Last updated:   19 December 2007

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/candymeth.asp

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  Sources:

    Davis, Kristina.   "Flavored Meth Aims to Addict New Users."

    The San Diego Union-Tribune.   7 April 2007   (p. A1).

    Irvine, Martha.   "First Signs of Decreased Meth Use Emerging in Some Communities."

    Associated Press.   1 April 2007.

    Leinwand, Donna.   "DEA Sees Flavored Meth Use."

    USA Today.   26 March 2007   (p. A3).

    Mitchell, Monte.   "'Candy-Flavored' Meth is Ashe Senator's Target."

    Winston-Salem Journal.   19 December 2007.

    Sherwood, Michelle.   "Strawberry Meth Didn't Take Long to Arrive in the Ozarks."

    KY3 News [Springfield, MO].   21 March 2007.

    Stone, Gigi.   "Looks Like Candy, Devastates Like Hard Drugs."

    ABC News.   29 March 2007.

    Thompson, Jim.   "Meth 'Candy' Found in County."

    Jefferson Post.   4 October 2007.

    NZ Drug Foundation.   "Urban Drug Myth: Fruit-Flavoured Methamphetamine."

    Press release.   28 June 2007.

    US Fed News.   "Sens. Feinstein, Grassley Introduce Legislation to Penalize Drug Dealers."

    25 April 2007.