Have you ever tried crack? Well, the new substitution is snorting or smoking the common classroom reward: Smarties. The inside scoop about why Smarties were banned, and how they were being smoked and snorted in the first place is here at Centennial. At the beginning of October, our Centennial classrooms were banned from carrying Smarties, because students have been caught smoking and/or snorting crushed up Smarties, straight from the wrapper. Snorting Smarties involves laying out the colorful powder in a line, and then dragging, while simultaneously sniffing up the powder into your sinuses. It reportedly stings. The Smartie powder gets stuck up in your nostril, and burns. “Snorting Smarties is like a publicity act. It’s very encouraged by friends.” It sounds like some people don’t like to snort Smarties, but feel that they need to in order to fit in. 

A second Smartie-snorting student states that it burns. They said if you don’t crush it up enough, it will burn worse. Apparently, when you blow your nose, colorful snot can come out onto your tissue. This source does not recommend snorting Smarties, but would not stop one if they wanted to do it. Clearly, snorting Smarties isn’t very smart, but for some reason, people still do.

To smoke Smarties, one must first crush up the candy into a powder. Next, one has to open up a single side of the wrapping to breathe in the powder. Although one typically has a coughing fit afterwards, it is still quite popular. There could be a few reasons as to why people smoke the Smarties powder. One is that you can slightly taste the sugary treat. It is faint, but still there. A second reason is that there is a sensation of acceptance found in your peers afterwards, not unlike snorting Smarties. An anonymous source explained that it can give you something to talk about with people that may not typically talk to you.  The final reason one might smoke Smarties is because they kind of “make you feel like a bada**,” according to a student who has smoked Smarties. Smoking Smarties is bad for your health, and yet, adolescents continue to do it.

The staff of Centennial has made the executive decision to ban Smarties in early October several weeks ago, to prevent snorting them. However, he had no knowledge of people smoking Smartie powder, and he was quite surprised during the interview when he found out. Mr. Doner said that the Smarties predicament usually comes in phases as the school’s students change. The last Smartie smoking/snorting outbreak occurred about five years ago.  When asked about the reason why he decided to ban the candy now, Doner revealed that several teachers had come to him about the issue of students smoking and snorting Smartie dust. Doner thinks that students might be smoking/snorting Smarties because they want attention, they’re simply being silly, or they’re trying to impress someone. Doner also stated, “I don’t like to be a person to make rules for fun…” As you can see, the staff of Centennial was trying to help students by getting rid of Smarties in the classrooms.

Clearly, smoking and snorting Smarties is quite popular among middle schoolers, for a number of reasons. Do they taste good when smoked? Is it possible that smoking and/or snorting Smarties can change your social status? Does smoking candy powder make you feel like a baddie? Was it necessary to ban Smarties, or should teachers have educated students about reasons why not to smoke Smarties instead? Let me know!