“Skittles parties” — they’re not just for after Halloween trick-or-treating.

So-called because different kinds of prescription drugs of many colors are tossed into a bowl and mixed, resembling the chewy candy, Skittles parties feature teens reaching in and grabbing prescription pills at random, sometimes gulping them by the fistful.

“Where do they get the drugs?” asked Vicksburg drug abuse prevention advocate Vickie Free. “From their parents’, grandparents’, and friends’ medicine cabinets.”

Free has the worst possible reason for knowing about misuse of prescription drugs by teenagers. Four years ago, her son, Bobby Hilbun, then 18, died from an accidental overdose of prescription medication.