Parents beware: If your teens are hitting the candy dish more often than usual, you may have more to worry about than sugar. The latest trend on the teen scene is soaking Gummy Bears — those sweet innocent little candies — in vodka as a way to sneak alcohol past parents, teachers and other unsuspecting grown-ups.

 

A quick Google search yields as many sites offering instructions for making vodka-infused Gummy Bears as there are sites warning parents about the trend. YouTube has more than 80 videos on how to make them.

 

Not to be a hypocrite, I do seem to recall that back in my day the "teen trend" was to soak fruits, particularly citrus fruits like oranges, in alcohol before taking them to school or on field trips. Same idea, different food group. But I think the biggest difference about the latest trend is just how much alcohol the bears absorb and how easy they are to eat. I mean you can only eat so many oranges in one sitting. But Gummy Bears? According to the instructional sites, the booze bears are practically odorless and utterly potent, allowing kids to ingest more alcohol than they realize as they eat the bears like, well, like candy.  

 

Police in Hollister, Calif., have posted a warning about the trend on their Facebook page, asking parents to be on the alert for the vodka-infused bears.