Why Candy Cigarettes are Forbidden

Candy cigarettes, also known as candy sticks or candy cigars, have a controversial history dating back to the late 19th century. Introduced as a novelty confection, they were originally made to mimic the appearance of real cigarettes. Despite their playful intent, candy cigarettes became a subject of debate due to concerns about promoting smoking to children. Over time, their packaging and marketing underwent significant changes to distance them from tobacco products, with many countries imposing regulations on their sale and advertising. Today, candy cigarettes are often nostalgic treats enjoyed by adults and children alike, serving as a reminder of a bygone era when their association with smoking was less scrutinized.
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Produced and hosted by Ryan Socash
Edit - Karolina Szwata
Script by Dillan Aultimate
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[@dyscotopia]

I'm trying to look after my health so I only use electronic candy cigarettes

[@GeneMillard]

Hahah that's kinda funny. Good one.

[@thenewbgamer6416]

So you like you cancer electric? Have you tried acoustic?

[@ryanharder2957]

laying here watching this as i’m ripping my box mod💀same here bro

[@KentaTheGreat1]

Yo same, I love electronic candy ones

[@ominous-omnipresent-they]

I'm not saying vaping isn't harmful, but it in no way contains the carcinogens notorious with cigarette products. Vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, and artificial/natural flavors. Nicotine and sweeteners are optional, of course.

[@iagrams9100]

I remember candy cigarettes. We had the chocolate ones and the hard candy one. But I never smoked real cigarettes and I don’t think any of my friends. We all knew they were candy and did nothing to convince us to smoke regular ones.

[@nemomarcus5784]

I loved candy cigarettes and cigars as a kid. But I knew enough people dying of cancer to know real cigarettes were not for me. Among neighbors who chewed tobacco, I had seen missing parts of their lower jaw from tobacco use to understand the harmful effects of tobacco.

[@applegal3058]

Same here...I don't smoke, and never desired to in my childhood.

[@perfectallycromulent]

I remember candy cigarettes, and the back of my school bus full of smoke from the kids who started at age 12.

[@richardlande2054]

The fact that I tried candy cigarettes as a kid and then began smoking real ones plus weed is mere coincidence.

[@binaryglitch64]

Same. I don't believe candy cigs had one iota of influence on my decision. Funny enough to put it like this but I quit using candy cig years before I took up real smoking and the thought of them didn't cross my mind when I was try'n to be one of the cool kids by smoking, but if it had it wouldn't have mattered as candy is for babies and being like a grown-up complete with all the freedoms of a grown-up was the image I was after.

[@emptyemptiness8372]

Every alcoholic started off drinking milk as a baby.

[@binaryglitch64]

@@emptyemptiness8372 well put... correlation does not equal causation.

[@CanVultus]

@@emptyemptiness8372 life the original gateway drug.

[@jenniferburchill3658]

I knew a lot of candy cigarette users who went on to smoke the real thing.

[@PotterPossum1989]

They're not forbidden, I buy them online or at Big lots

[@typetalk3726]

They were mainly forced to rebrand to "candy sticks". So, everything else is the same except for the name

[@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245]

“Weed infused candies are marketing unhealthy lifestyles to children..” Candy cigarettes: *heyyyyy*

[@Pattern51lover]

We used to have them at the local gas station by my school growing up in the early 2000’s. They were like eating hard chalk sticks, but looked cool. Also bubble gum cigars, those were the best! I also never became a smoker.

[@vvvnokk8309]

Im a gen z’er too and the neighborhood ice cream truck used to have them.

[@AaronHausmann]

I thought my ice cream man must have been selling expired or imported candy lmao. Glad others have eaten these two candies in the 2000's.

[@phillip6083]

Yeah... Just a little tastier than necco wafers.

[@lilygz22]

Remember getting marvel theme ones in the gas station

[@GODemon13]

Never could get them to burn right or get any smoke out of them.

[@jacobhoffman2553]

blow into it.. coated in flour or powdered sugar then they had paper around em... that was to create a smoke effect.... yes i smoke.... no it wasnt the candy lol

[@DanielleWhite]

I have very vague memories of them: that it was very clearly about the appearance of smoking since the candy was horrible

[@hendo337]

A lot of adults used the candy cigarettes to occupy their hands and not smoke. As far as it goes, it turns out that people ahould have been concerned about at least a couple 1000 more important things than if people sell candy cigarettes or even REAL cigarettes, our country is bankrupt, corrupt, infiltrated, demoralized and the system is completely broken.

[@Excelcior58]

The world is very scary for you...

[@KiwiCatherineJemma]

Previously I lived in the state of Western Australia. They outlawed all Chewing Tobacco products in the 1980's, claiming it had known health risks, but still allowed cigarettes, cigars and smoking tobacco (which have the same known health risks, plus more). Then sometime around the 1990's or early 2000's they banned all "Candy Cigarettes". I especially bought a small packet of them, and promptly ate them, but kept the empty packet as a souvenir. I remember also keeping safely somewhere, the last couple of TV guide magazines that had tobacco advertising, I remember some of those adverts actually said "this is the last time you'll see this advert...".

[@gunshybtdb6657]

wow thats pretty cool

[@gunier.j.kintgenanimations]

I haven't watched the video yet, but I can confirm one thing: Candy Cigarettes are not "Forbidden", at least in Colorado. At the local Five & Dime, they sell them for $1 a pack, & there's no minimum age requirement to buy them. Heck, I've seen 5 year old's walking out of that store with a pack in hand!

[@Sweenymee]

Depends on where you live. It's forbidden to sell in al of Norway. But I think the Sweeds are still selling it. The candy cigarettes kind of "promote" tobacco to kids, and that is why some places have outlawed selling it.

[@tubes42024]

They still sell them in some stores in Ohio also but I've only seen the chalky ones. I haven't seen the 'smokey' bubble gum ones since I was a kid.

[@Squid-Killer]

I've seen them in corner stores here in texas, but they keep them in the very bottom shelves usually where kids wouldnt look

[@blueblousedesigns]

I had candy cigarettes when I was a kid and hung out with my late grandmother, who was a smoker, and I didn't get into smoking real cigarettes. I used to have them in the late 90's and early Aughts

[@123ElectricMonkey]

Forbidden yet sold everywhere

[@Melissa0774]

Up until the mid 2000's, they had the "candy sticks," that came in those mix bags you could only get for Halloween. They came in little cardboard boxes that had cartoon characters or generic Halloween characters on them. I never saw them actually called candy cigarettes, but I knew that's what they were supposed to be. I really liked them because they had a very unique taste like nothing else I've ever been able to find since. It was sort of a vanilla mint. I haven't seen them in about 15 years. I wish they'd make them again because they were really good. I don't see why they couldn't make them a different shape so people won't associate them with cigarettes. They sure did look weird though, so I can see why people didn't like them. They were skinny little white sticks that didn't even look like cigarettes. They looked more like black board chalk, but much skinnier. I always wanted to try to use one to write on a chalkboard to see if it would work, but I never got the chance to.

[@reefervision666]

Such Delicious Chalk!!

[@Malkaking]

I use to buy them as a kid in the 90s,I never started smoking, I was upset they stopped selling in the 2000s

[@cowboyfrankspersonalvideos8869]

I remember these from my youth in the 1950s. The few I had (we didn't have much money) as having one end dipped in pinkish color. Was never sure if that was intended to represent a filter or burning tobacco. My mother was a chain smoker but my Dad never smoked. I never took up the fowl smelling things. A number of years ago, my partner gave me a complete set of Perry Mason TV shows on DVD. We watched them, in order, while eating dinner. After about the 3rd or 4th episode, we started making fun bets as to how long it would take into the episode before someone offered another a cigarette. On average it was about 3 to 5 minutes. However on some episodes this occurred within the first 30 seconds after the title sequence.

[@theboyisnotright6312]

The producers were paid to include smoking on TV. Very common in the 50-60s

[@benjaminstevens4468]

In the late 80s early 90s I could buy candy cigarettes with the actual lucky strike logo on it. The ones that you could blow “smoke” out of, were chewing gum

[@binaryglitch64]

Before I even watch, I just want to mention that; in the United States, you can buy them in person, in a brick and mortar store, to this day... without question, as a kid. Granted, they're availability (not online) is scarce, however that doesn't make what I say any less true.

[@KennCaesius]

This particular dive into history takes me back. I remember encountering candy cigarettes in Southern California until the mid to late 1980s and never thinking much of it. If I recall correctly, candy cigarettes were really modified bubble gum that could be puffed if you breathed hard enough on it. Perhaps beyond the scope of this particular episode, I recall an episode of NHK's "Cool Japan" from several years ago that featured a drink - for drink Japanese children, mind you - that imitated the color and foam of beer for adults so they could 'drink' alongside them. It really surprised me since I had long held that Japanese and American attitudes to drinking were the same in not to encourage vices like drinking. Does anyone else remember that particular episode?

[@truhhhhhhhokIII3]

Love the concept of this video and channel, surpised this doesnt have more views. Def do something on sweet tarts, like what the hell are they, how did they get so popular, and how are they like 5 million x better than those god awful necco wafers?!

[@benmcreynolds8581]

I used to buy these when I was growing up. I was born in 1989 and they still sold these at Dairy mart & they came in little cigarette pack's lol people are way too up tight nowadays for anyone to get away with this. Sometimes we take things a little too serious imo

[@markdraper3469]

Most of the adults in my family smoked but they never encouraged me to, though I eventually did after I was on my own. That said, pretending to smoke wasn't a "thing" and actually I never found anything appealing about candy cigs. They might show up as a stocking stuffer or in an Easter basket but they were never a bribe from my parents or a willing choice of my own. Bubble gum cigars just added the inconvenience of keeping track of what you weren't using and licorice pipes were also awkward to manage and not very good anyway. So, the controversy you describe and the eventual loss of candy cigs was kind of lost on me.

[@brianmccray4250]

I still see them when I drive over to Idaho. They rock it old school.

[@AOTProductions]

I’m 26, so I born in 1998. I remember getting them, at a small gas station my dad worked at, in slate mills Ohio.

[@Survivalguy]

I remember those! It was like 1982 in small town TX. I can still remember the smell of the powder on them and the pink tips that looked like it was lit. I am 46 and I smoke, lol.

[@izzydeadyet7336]

We still had these in Canada in the 80s and 90s, and there was gum ones, chocolate, and the hard ones.. I remember certain ones having papers on them, and the extra flour or whatever I had no idea was supposed to be smoke! Genius! I miss the liquorice pipes

[@JaytheGreen]

im born in 1993 and we had candy cigarettes. in the form of think chocolate sticks wrapped in rollie papers to the classic popeye candy sticks.

[@yeahaboutthatthough3656]

Candy cigarettes are still available to buy at candy stores across the country...Just bought some in Austin, Tx and more recently in Boston, MA.

[@michaelangellotti4773]

Yup, just saw these at the candy store in the mall, not even a week ago. We bought some Zotz.

[@WormBurger]

Popeye candy sticks. Not designed to look like cigarettes anymore, but there still around.

[@williamcozart8158]

Are you trying to buy candy smokes in every city?

[@djkanyetwitty]

Austin TX doesn't exist. Austin hasn't been Texas since 2007. It's Austin California and it's a shithole now

[@Destructionfilms.]

Bought some in pigeon forge

[@gustavgnoettgen]

I remember chocolate and chewing gum cigarettes, as something cheap that our school would give us sometimes. That was in the nineties, maybe even early 2000s.

[@So-CA_NV_AZ82]

I used to get bubble gum cigarettes from the ice cream truck all the time when I was little, and yes I used chew Big League Chew as well. Great video Ryan

[@EATSHISTORY]

Very cool!

[@jenniferburchill3658]

Reality is, any foodstuff shaped like a stick could be used as a cigarette copycat. Once candy cigarettes were no longer readily available, we "smoked" pretzel sticks and those creme-filled pastry sticks.

[@JackieOwl94]

My teachers gave these out in the early 2000s. I never saw them again after middle school.

[@kymberlyn420]

I always waited for the ice cream truck to get the ones with extra cornstarch bubble gum candy cigarettes cuz when you blow thru em, it actually looks like you're smoking 😢

[@highwayman187]

I loved these as a kid!

[@jerryparz4103]

I enjoyed candy cigarettes, chocolate cigarettes, licorice pipes and bubble gum cigars in the late 1950s. I liked the chocolate cigarettes best. They were chocolate after all! The bubble gum cigars were good too because it was a LOT of gum. Maybe it influenced my starting smoking but at the age of 13 I was probably more influenced by peer pressure. Smoking was a forbidden fruit and I hung out with some tough kids. My father smoked and one day when I was 14 I asked him when he started smoking. He said he started when he was my age. So I asked him for a cigarette and he gave me one. He even gave me a note when I was in high school so I could go to the "smokers corner" which was a block from the school. That was allowed during and instead of PE time. I smoked until I was 24 and saw the price of cigarettes regularly getting more and more expensive so I quit. It also helped that my wife (my "new" peer pressure) NEVER smoked. I haven't smoked a cigarette for 50 years.

[@thenewbgamer6416]

Bro im a 2006 kid and I hella loved these when I was younger, these were and are still around in Mexico

[@13adLucEnt]

Correction @ 1:22 "imitate" not "intimidate". Doesn't take away from the vid, very well put together, just my ocd taking control

[@GrnArrow092]

I remember having candy cigarettes when I was a child back in the 80's. Those were still legal back then. My child brain never caught onto the idea that these were like training wheels for smoking the real thing. Usually children pick up this habit from their parents who are smokers. I just liked the taste of candy cigarettes. While I tried smoking as a teenager, I never picked up the habit and glad I never did.

[@Mr.Quinlan888]

The Little League field that held the games I played in during tbe early 80's, sold the candy cigarettes, candy cigars and Big League Chew at the snack bar. Never smoked or used tobacco in my life. I guess that was more due to watching my grandmother waste away from cancer and emphysema.

[@user-fh7cz7eo8l]

theres a candy store i used get these from theyre still around "target" "kings" and "roundup"

[@douglasvavra7423]

I just bought, in march of 2024 some candy cigarettes in an ice cream shop in Chicago as a unique gift for friends in California.

[@michaelangellotti4773]

Just saw these at the candy store in the mall, not even a week ago.

[@mar4kl]

I liked chocolate cigarettes as a kid. I never much cared for the other types of candy cigarettes. And I just ate them; I didn't pretend to smoke them. Despite having two grandparents who smoked cigarettes (but not enough to kill them; they smoked in moderation up until their timely deaths from unrelated causes), a father who also smoked cigarettes (but quit when I was 8), and a couple of other relatives who smoked pipes, I don't remember ever wanting to smoke, and have never tried it. In fact, for most of my life, I've hated to be around people who smoke. I've also avoided other risky behaviors that people have been known to engage in, particularly during high school and college. So I guess I'm boring as well as really annoying to public policy wonks, but I'm happy and basically healthy.

[@haimarrrr]

You're doing just fine.

[@WINTERMUTE_AI]

Amazon sell candy cigs and bottle caps... I heard that 5 percent of people who eat metal and plastic bottle caps, attribute it to the bottle caps candy they ate as children...

[@AutomatedUser]

I have several packs in my truck, a few in my toolbox, and Ive had several today.

[@bhauser12]

You can still buy these from the general mast stores on the east coast!

[@conservativeright5941]

I was born in the 90s and saw candy cigarettes everywhere, there is a store that has them where I live now. Do you not do all your research before a video?

[@technomage6736]

Can't believe I'm old enough to remember buying these up at the corner store! 😳🤦‍♂️

[@MrDDiRusso]

I remember candy cigarettes, powdered bubblegum snuff or chaw, pretzel rod cigars, bubble pipes. It was fun to pretend but I NEVER thought about really smoking or using tobacco or drugs. It's so ironic that candy cigarettes are illegal but cannabis is legal now.

[@trashcatlinol]

I saw these in small town grocery and general stores as recently as the 2010s. I loved the powder stick version. The candy did less to convince me it was cool any more than Pocky did. People around me smoking like chimneys did, though. Also, i'm allergic to regular cigarette smoke . I want to see these return, but without the unnecessary package design. The tiny packs you find with a discount Spiderman on them available at Halloween are inferior.

[@trashcatlinol]

I was very much a straight edge punk until after I graduated

[@sped6954]

17:25 It's Attorneys General, not Attorney Generals. I ate candy cigarettes when I was a kid. I also had Big League Chew and Jerky Stuff. I was never under any delusions that I was smoking, chewing, or dipping when I was "using" those items. My parents didn't smoke and their friends didn't either, but i did. I started smoking when I was around 16 or 17, I only occasionally had a can of dip and I never used chewing or leaf tobacco. I never put Big League Chew or Jerky Stuff between my cheek and gum to mimic dipping or chewing, I never put a can of Jerky Stuff in my back pocket to prtetend it was a can of Skoal or Copenhagen or whatever, and I didn't hold a candy cigarette like it was a real cigarette. I ate candy cigarettes like they were sticks of mint flavored candy. Come to think of it, they didn't even vaguely resemble cigarettes. They were thinner and had a chalky looking red thing on one end that was supposed to represent a smoldering ember, but on a real cigarette, the end was actually more grayish whitish that was orange when you took a drag. The fact that I smoked for many, many years is purely coincidental to eating candy cigarettes as a kid. I wasn't subliminally mind fucked into smoking by some candy maker, nor was it their fault that I started smoking. It was my fault. Mine and mine alone. I used to love those licorice pipes, but I never smoked a pipe. I don't remember the pink candy dot things being part of them though.

[@Russell-yt8kg]

Candy cigarettes did nothing to make me smoke. 10 years after my last candy cigarettes. My best friend stole some of his dad's cigarettes. .so my friend and petty theft got me started joining the army made sure I didn't quit.

[@stardragon5849]

Oh man, i used to try those gums before. I didn't know it was controversial when i was a kid.

[@ChadwickTheChad]

I just saw some in a candy store at Pier 39 in San Francisco.

[@davebooshty299]

In Beverly Mass across My street There's a place Glorias Deli and they sell Candy Cigarettes , I both a pack of VICTORY bubblegum cigs as of recently.

[@e_g4239]

We still got chewing gum candy cigarettes in Austria

[@RipBillCooper]

I was born in 99 and I remember getting these in my Halloween bag as a kid.

[@kennethscott4997]

In Canada they literally changed Popeye candy cigarettes into Popeye candy sticks by removing the red dye on the top that made it look like it was burning. My wife still loves them to this day, but she's also a heavy cigarette smoker, so yeah...

[@NinjaRunningWild]

Had tons of Big League Chew as a kid. Never ever had actual dip. I must be an anomaly.

[@KingcoleIIV]

same here

[@danielgodfrey4415]

I came across candy cigs at the store a year ago

[@charlenevarada--Stargazer]

I remember the candy cigarettes from the 1950's! They all had a peppermint flavor! Talk about Halloween memories! Wow!!!😮

[@ladytron1724]

They sold packets of sweet tobacco in a pouch in the UK in the 1960s

[@dopenerd]

I’m Gen X, so we definitely had these. I gotta say it didn’t sway me in the least as I’ve never smoked a day in my life. But I can see the concern of parents.

[@cocoaorange1]

I recall them as well.

[@9Tailsfan]

Stores in St. Louis during the 80s had bubble gum flavored ones.

[@slamjackson2137]

In the 90s we used to “smoke” Candy cigarettes. The place that sold them was a tobacco shop too hahahah

[@awakenbeast2124]

Our local pharmacy still sells these!

[@applegal3058]

I remember these as a kid of the 80s and early 90s....i mostly remember seeing them in my Halloween loot bag. They were Popeye the sailor brand i think... I don't remember trying to mimic smoking as much as I actually liked the taste and texture of the chalky candy...

[@user-ue1il6cx3v]

There's a gas station that sells them where I live. They even sell them at the front counter. Target is one of the brands. Looks just like a pack of luky strikes.

[@NightfallShadow]

I just bought some victory cigs recently.

[@jeyDsixx18]

Yo I used to love candy smokes…couldn’t tell u wtf the flavor was but I esp liked the nice touch to paint the ends red 😂

[@user-tu9lm3lp2n]

I remember the target chocolate cigarette, resembling a Pack of lucky strike cigarettes,and pall mall, and marlboro. That Was between 1998,and 2002.unfortunately,it works as planned,today, i smoking menthol cigarettes.

[@nemomarcus5784]

My problem with these studies is the isolation of cause and effect. Candy cigarettes may be one part of the influence of why someone picks up smoking real cigarettes later in life. If the parents smoke that may be a bigger influence than kids using candy cigarettes in a family that doesn't smoke.

[@Vi--ss7tt]

Honestly, I always grabbed them as a kid becasue I love chalky candy.

[@MagnusPaul1976]

I have to thank these candy cigarettes for messing up my teeth in my childhood. 🤣😂

[@user-cv7kf2fg1z]

I was born in 86... candy ciggs were still around. Some even had a paper wrapper with powdered sugar that you could blow out the end like smoke 😂

[@angeloluna529]

Only place ive seen them sold is at my local big lots.

[@technoir2584]

The tobacco companies are just despicable.

[@ValleyMansonOfficial]

Forbidden? They're less than 50¢ at the local gas station 🤔

[@Neoguest]

Big League Chew is suppose to be an alternative to chewing tobacco for baseball players.

[@chuppathingy2848]

Maaaannn. I used to get these when i was little. I rarely pretended to smoke them, i just liked them. Yeah they werent the best but i liked them.

[@majikglustik9704]

I'm in Florida and I can say for sure... If you think candy cigarettes are something, try chocolate joints.

[@robertkilbourne323]

I used to get the Popeye brand sticks (I can't remember if they were branded as 'cigarettes' or not) when I was a kid. The first time I tried an actual cigarette it almost killed me from coughing so I never tried it again.

[@DOCDOCFLAMINGOS]

Ummmmmmm.... BUT They Are Not!!??!!

[@scvmbag]

Watching their parents smoke is what desensitizes children two smoking

[@yy19aos]

they still make these

[@little.zayzay]

Me and my sister used to get candy cigarettes in late 2000s

[@WINTERMUTE_AI]

heh, I loved candy cigs when I was a kid and I ate the big league gum to... I hated tobacco back then and still do now, never smoked tobacco in my whole life.

[@parisj0354]

I used to love candy cigarettes in the 90s

[@elcapitan6209]

That’s wild cuz I’m smoking runtz rn 😂 I do remember the candy cigarettes and big league chew and loved both! But that wasn’t what made me want to smoke. It was more like the fact that everyone around me smoked. 😮🤯 But even still I like the taste of those chalk sticks too😅

[@nobodyxx560]

My candy store sells candy cigarettes rn

[@mischi9203]

im pretty sure theyre still sold in germany

[@MisterJessel]

I remember still finding them in Milwaukee up 'till the very early 90s. Probably expired leftover stock.

[@amandahelmboldt4347]

I grew up in the late 80’and 90’s. I had candy cigarettes. They were gross. But made you feel grown up.

[@canaan5337]

They are not banned I’ve seen them recently

[@carlam6669]

See’s candy chocolate Seegars make a great Father’s Day gift. I doubt anybody has begun smoking real cigars as a result of consuming them. I used to eat candy cigarettes as a kid and had no inclination to begin smoking. In fact, I use to nag my father to quit smoking whose life was eventually cut short by lung cancer.

[@LuxuryPossum]

I never had a problem with Candy Cigarettes as a kid. I would eat them when I drank.

[@dab1750]

I'm gonna be honest... I used to chew Big League Chew all the time as a kid and just learned from this video it was meant to imitate chewing tobacco

[@lonnietaylor2759]

I remember them, they use to sell them in the corner stores. (they didn't Taste good) they didn't stay that long.even the gum cigars😫😫😫😫😫 thank God they don't sell them anymore.

[@neilwiththedeal]

Got them in the 90s from the ice cream man