News: Six Flags pulls pacifiers

Posted at 11:12 PM EST (0412 GMT)

Jan. 15th, 2004 -- Six Flags Great Adventure will not be selling light up pacifiers after dark in the 2004 season. About 200 7th and 8th grade students began a letter writing campaign stating that the pacifiers were popular drug paraphernalia which eventually convinced the park to stop selling them.

Toni Carrea, a student assistance counselor at Jackson elementary and middle schools, aid the pacifiers are used by teenagers at dance parties such as "raves" to ease teeth grinding and jaw clenching that is caused by the drug Ecstacy. The strobe light effect is also supposed to enhance the effects of the drug. "In my opinion it is a blatant attempt to influence unsuspecting adolescents to mimic known drug behavior." This opinion does seem a little extreme.

This past Dec. 11, Ms. Carrea received a letter from Bill Muirhead, vice president and general manager of Six Flags Great Adventure. He stated that the company sold the pacifiers because they are "popular during the evening hours because they are simply fun, eye-catching novelty items." Six Flags has a no-tolerance policy toward drugs and drug paraphernalia in its parks and is committed to substance abuse prevention.

Jenny Keris, 13, said, "Knowing that they sold pacifiers that were drug-related makes me not want to go there or have anything to do with Great Adventure," she said. "I think these pacifiers could have brought the wrong crowd to Great Adventure. It misses the point of a family theme park because drug dealers might have gone to the park and tried to sell drugs to the kids after seeing them wearing the pacifiers."

These pacifiers are also sold at Cedar Fair parks, although at this time it is not clear that they will be after this story breaks. There is more information at Packetonline News.