Mmm... 'pharm parties'

Slate recently ran a fun little article debunking the idea of "pharm parties," or as they theoretically were called back in the day, "fruit salad parties." The premise is simple: kids round up a multi-colored assortment of pills and tabs from their parents' cabinets, throw them into a punch bowl, and everybody grabs something at random to swallow. You know, for fun. Apparently the Wall Street Journal recently mentioned these parties in passing, but as Slate points out, the existence of these parties seems to be almost solely in the minds of breathless local reporters, going back quite a ways. Here's one example:

The Tucson Daily Citizen alleged in a Dec. 9, 1969, article that the "old fashioned potluck supper had taken on a new twist." Instead of sharing food, young partygoers were throwing "fruit salad parties" in which "the pills are combined into a colorful mixture, and young Tucsonians gulp them by the handful" with no idea of what they were swallowing. The Daily Citizen's source was a registered nurse who had written about the topic for the American School Board Journal. (Here's is a snippet about fruit-salad parties from the Journal.) Her sources? "[D]rug seminars and lectures she has attended as well as interviews with law officers, professional men and prosecutors from throughout the United States." Not exactly primary sourcing.