Snorting Smarties
A third-grader in Georgia was suspended from school this week for crushing up Smarties candies and snorting the powder.
Is this really going to become a thing kids do?
The 9-year-old was suspended for two days after he was caught inhaling the powdered candy through his nose, according to a Time story.
The boy told his mom he was copying something he saw a classmate do, according to the local TV station.
“He told me he had witnessed a student in class, he had actually watched her. He’d watched her crush it up and inhale it,” she told the TV station. “I said, ‘What made you so curious about it?’ And he said her reaction was like, ‘Wooo!’”
As most would expect, inhaling the candy powder leads to a sugar rush.
But the powder can also cause other problems, including infections, chronic coughing, choking, recurring infections, scarring, asthma, bleeding and even death,” according to the Time article.
And, apparently, the powder can even attract maggots to feed on the remaining sugar dust in the nostrils.
Gross.
Marissa Harshman
I'm the health reporter for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash. I started at The Columbian -- my hometown newspaper -- in September 2009. Reach me at marissa.harshman@columbian.com or 360-735-4546.