Halloween is completely safe:
Lenore “Free Range Kids” Skenazy points out that there has never been a single substantiated incident of a kid being sickened, hurt or killed by doctored candy handed out during trick-or-treating in the history of America.
David J. Skal talks about one of the most common myths in his wonderful (but sadly out of print) “Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween,” which starts off deflating this urban legend. It should be noted that there HAVE been a few instances of pins or razor blades in apples, but as snopes.com points out, that’s an attempt to injure, not kill, and no one was ever seriously injured by foreign objects. However, I DO find a case of poisoning–the death of eight year old Timothy Mark O’Bryan, who died from a cyanide-laced Pixy Stik. The police promptly captured the dirtbag responsible, who turned out to be….the boy’s father, who happened to have a large insurance policy on the child. He went to his state-mandated reward in 1984.