Six Flags Great Adventure will stop selling pacifiers souveniers, critics say it encourages drug use

Jeff, could the people in charge of retail and merchandise at Six Flags be that naive? Type in "ecstasy and pacifiers" in google, and you get page after page of results (many of which deal with schools banning pacifiers in recent years). Just because the fad has been effectively mainstreamed doesn't mean that it's completely lost its association.

I think too many people are getting caught up in the goody two-shoes aspect of the story. Some misguided counselor sees something she immediately associates with drugs and gets students to wage a campaign for her. That's incredibly lame, for various reasons. It's not as if SFGAdv was selling candy that resembled X, or little trinkets that look like crack pipes.

That said, I don't think it's a bad idea for SFGAdv to pull the pacifiers anyway, for the same reason Wal-mart chooses not to sell certain CDs, toy guns, or "adult" magazines. If those businesses want to maintain a certain image by restricting the types of items they sell, then that's their business. If a rabble-rouser is the one instigating the change, it's irritating, but it's also ultimately the business' decision whether or not to change.

i have never herd of it, this school must be in camden i cant think of any other town were this happens. they probably have food at these parties so wj=hy is gadv still selling food?

Sorry - that was my post above. Didn't want to make it seem like it was anonymous.

V2 Fiend - in the old days, my high school classmates (in the Chicago burbs) just drank 40 ounces in their cars in the parking lot... and that was just the honor students. Or mixed their vodka in with their can of Coke. Clearly, there's plenty this counselor could probably be doing in her own school rather than taking on SFGAdv.

Naive? Can they be any different than the countless numbers of people here who didn't make the connection? Are they naive too?

Seriously folks... the slope isn't that slippery. The light-up pacifier being worn around one's neck is very closely associated with the use of X. If you didn't know that before, you know now, and I invite you to do a google search on the topic to demonstrate just how widespread that association is. Just because you personally didn't make the association doesn't mean it's invalid.

Don't blow this story out of proportion. No one's suggesting Fun-Yuns and Phish albums be banned because of their association with getting stoned. If you can agree that it would exhibit bad judgement for Six Flags to sell candy crack pipes, then you can see that if a light-up pacifier gets a little too close to resembling "drug paraphernalia" in the minds of the execs, they might just want to steer completely clear of it, even if they're being overly cautious. Misguided crusades are, indeed, lame, but don't start yelling that the sky is falling.

First, I applaud Great Adventure for taking this step. Second, I don't think the purchasing department at Great Adventure knew what these items were to begin with or they wouldn't have been selling them. Third, I'm sure the products were meant to be a toy that was adapted to enhance the "experience" felt when using Ectasy. However, I haven't seen stores pulling glue off the shelfs just because people sniff it to get high. Great Adventure did this to be a good corporate citizen and should be applauded for doing so. Can we get 200 letters together to get rid of the basketballs in the parks?

Not naive in a bad way, no. :) But I would expect Six Flags folks in charge of merchandise to be acutely aware of these things. If they didn't have at least some marketing savvy, they wouldn't be selling any merchandise at all. I mean, how the hell did they sell all those Cat-in-the-Hat hats for all those years?

After reading this, I guess I feel really naive. I'm guessing cat-in-the-hat hats have some sort of drug connotations I don't know of.

Makes me glad I wasn't a part of the drug culture - I prefer to be ignorant :)

Ignorance is Bliss. heh

There was a whole shop in front of Joker's Jinx at SFA that sold all kinds of lighted paraphanalia. I saw plenty of the lighted pacifiers, and never made the drug connection, even though I'm aware that they have been used at raves. I doubt anyone who visited the park thought that it was anything other than a light-up toy.

Jeff stated

-"And Matt... give me a break. Glow sticks have been fun at parties for years long before it became fashionable in rave culture"-

I never said glow sticks didn't exist before. Neither did I say they weren't fun. I did say, "The top three things of choice for the new age drugs are: Pacifiers, Glow sticks, and bags of "Skittles." No joke."

I love glowsticks. I just know that A LOT of people use those three things when pushing/using the new drugs, like it or not.

A few have also mentioned another big point with this whole issue. There are SOOOOoo many 10000's of other light up items parks can come up with to sell then bother with the paciferes. Take them off for the families, look good doing it, and everyone moves on happy.

There are a lot of things that I too grew up with loving...and some still love. That people turned around and destroyed...Flinstones theme song comes to mind

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Matthew Baughman

Wow, I'm really late to this party, but one thing in this discussion struck me as odd:

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For those who don't know people use the pacifiers to keep themselves from choking on their own tongue while using the drugs. Stupidty at it's best.

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WHAT!?

Ok, I'll admit I am 30 after all, but as far as 30 year olds go, I'm still pretty "tuned in" to what's going on (I even know the Skittles/Cicidrin thing :) ). I've never, ever...ever heard that pacifier explanation before. It makes no sense whatsoever. If you're afraid of swallowing your tongue while rolling - then you better use a pacifier 24/7 because you're probably likely to swallow your tongue at any second. Anything associated with Ecstacy has to do with the heightened sensation of things. The sucking sensation (heh) is a perfect one (as well as visual sensations with glow sticks and aural sensations with the music or the smell of Vicks - all the cliches). You'd probably have to have tried X at least once in your life to understand how the simplest sensation can be downright amazing when on X. Sucking a pacifier falls right into this area.

The "swallow your tongue" explanation sounds like spooky propaganda told to kids as another example of how scary drugs can be. Ooogie Booogie!

As so many others have summed up so well - it's a fad thing. Like all fads, something is taken from the "underground", watered down, comercialized and sold to kids. 99% of those kids with the pacifiers have no idea why they have it - they just know everyone else does.

I want to campaign for all the babies out there who've had their dream souvenir taken away from them ;)

I'm reminded of a political cartoon my current issues teacher showed us, which could be modified for this situation:

Drugs ------ Pacifiers
Clearly, there's a connection here.
*** This post was edited by MiLLeNNiUMRiDeR 1/17/2004 1:42:53 AM ***

As impossible as it sounds after talking to my sister in law who works at Akron General Hospital, Ohio. There have been 3 reported cases in 2003 of people "Choking on their own tongue." While no one that she knows have has died from it, she gave me a few little tid bits.

It usually takes a person around 15mg/kg of DXM to provide the above.

And some things that happen to people while on it: Pupil Dialation, constant change of temp., sexual dysfuntion, impaired jugdment (I think this one comes before you take it ;) ), Dizzeness, bodily fluid build up. There's plenty more about this whole subject that is actually pretty interesting.
You can find tones of info on the above on many websites telling about the drug(s).

Anyhow, that's the whole pacifier and tongue thing comes from in one way or another.

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Lord Gonchar,The Pacifier, may be to keep one from swallowing thier tongue. I have always known it to be for keeping one from grinding their teeth together while high on X. See Dale Picolet's post earlier in this segment.

Living in Detroit I see people with pacifiers everyday. I agree, it has become trendy. However, it definately started in the drug scene. When I worked as a clerk at 7-Eleven people would come in everyday at about 2:00am with pacifiers when they left the clubs.

When I was working as a production manager for the professional concert scene I saw some of the weird things people do while on X. These these included, biting thier tonques, dehydrating and passing out, grinding thier teeth so hard you can hear the screech, and the most hilarious thing I have seen only the girls on X do..... Get right up on the subs (subwoofers) and grind the thing like a dance partner. I am not into the drug scene, but I have heard that the vibrations from a professional sub (EAW-KF 850 array) can cause quite a powerful "Big O" in women.

*** This post was edited by James K 1/17/2004 9:17:45 AM ***

You know, I can remember the same arguments in the 70's about tie-dye shirts. Now kids make them at summer camp. Are summer camps encouraging the use of LSD?

It's just a stupid trend, and nothing more. Besides, people like things that are shiny or light up. Remember all of the stupid things they sold you at the circus and ice shows?*** This post was edited by Jeff 1/17/2004 10:15:56 AM ***

It usually takes a person around 15mg/kg of DXM to provide the above.

That's great and all, but "real" Ecstacy will not have DXM in it - Ecstacy is MDMA. In fact there are testing kits available to check your tabs for DXM. If the test shows DXM in the "ecstacy" - don't take it! It's very dangerous.

I stand by my original opinion - MDMA will not make you swallow your tongue.

...DXM (which is NOT ecstacy) will kill you.

EDIT - Let me just clarify, I'm not a "drug user" by any stretch of the imagination. I was young once like everyone else and I happen to hate the hypocrisy and intentional misinformation that surrounds many drugs and their useage. Being well informed is your best bet - from there the choices you make are your own.

Six Flags selling funky pacifiers is not encouraging, promoting or even related to drug use. As cute as it was (from a PR standpoint) to go along the the request of some kids, I'd have told them to shut the hell up, get over themselves and go find something productive to do. I would've also sent each of them a complimentary pacifier for their effort.

...hence the reason I don't work in PR :)

*** This post was edited by Lord Gonchar 1/17/2004 3:04:11 PM ***

I was told the people unconsiously grind their teeth when on exstacy, and that is the reason for the pacifier. Dont know for sure, just what I heard.

I honestly can not believe LG's (and many other member's) assessment on this one. These pacifiers are basically drug paraphenalia. There is no other use for them. And don't say that they are meant as a fashion statement, because you might not say the same thing if your kid wanted to hand a crack pipe around his neck "because its cool".

I don't think Six Flags was intentionally trying to promote anything here. They just didn't have someone who saw it from another point of view. They did the right thing in pulling these things once they found out what they were used for. And to tell some kids trying to make any kind of positive influence in their world to "shut the hell up" is simply wrong. You should probably stick to making coasters.

A little thing like this is not going to stop kids from doing drugs, but it does something to say that it is wrong. If we lose our sense of right and wrong on this, we will lose our future.

Slam away!

I think that we are skeptical that maybe the teacher was the one who prodded them to write these letters instead of the kids actually coming up with this idea. I wonder if these kids made the connection or did the teacher make it for them.

I think it's way off to compare a lighted pacifier and a crack pipe hanging around someone's neck. One is blatantly drug paraphernalia and the other is questionable. Like Jeff said, think of all the stupid crap they sold to you at ice shows and circuses. What if someone played with one of those stupid toys while on drugs. Does that make it paraphernalia? Not hardly.

Note to myself:

Never allow my daughters to go out with a guy who shows up at the door sucking on a pacifier.