Give Me Chocolate or Give Me Death
Hershey’s Chocolate
“Chocolate’s sensual power makes me forget I’m single”
-Sarah, 26, Cincinnati, OH
There’s a desire to make anyone unwrap more than one piece!
Do you like it milky? Smooth? Dark? Crispy? Rich? White? These are just a few ways chocolate is packaged. So, now….
Which one is your temptation?
-USA Today, January 6, 2020
As if an ad, such as this one, needed to be prevalent throughout magazines in the U.S. Every person living on American land seemed to have a palate for chocolate. With it being inexpensive, one could find a bag of Hershey’s kisses for $2.50, nearly everyone had access. When the country’s convenient serotonin inducer is chocolate quickly gaining calories are susceptible.
Dr. Owen Divenski, the US Surgeon General that was recently inaugurated as America’s doctor, snapped in his office. He threw the papers that contained a surplus of statistics across the floor. The sheets landed around his desk like confetti.
US Surgeon General after US Surgeon General have pushed and pulled with the importance to decrease obesity in America. It didn’t matter who advocated or what was expressed, the increase of caloric intake has exponentially grown for decades. The last thought that screamed in his head was, “…. And we are still fat!”
Dr. Divenski wasn’t planning on giving a few facts with the hope that America would change. He was going to take action.
“Owen, are you sure?” Betty asked her husband.
He sighs, “Yes, Betty, for the thousandth time. The prices of cigarettes have been raised several times for obvious reasons. Chocolate is also a fatal enemy. I have the honor to control this one.”
“You can control your own chocolate habit?” Betty asks fuming. After pausing, she takes a moment to inhale. Betty stands up, “Is this for the good of the country? Or about your reign of control?”
As a child, Owen’s mother gave him chocolate for good behavior and chores done in a timely manner. Dieticians would have considered him an addict before his time with no concern for moderation. Owen’s sweet tooth desired more nourishment into adulthood. Chocolate was there to start celebrations as it was also there to brighten a dismal hour. If he ever went a day without it, it must have been a short day.
At the age of 42, Dr. Owen DiVenski would be responsible for leading America into a healthier lifestyle. However, Owen was borderline obese with the knowledge heart disease may be diagnosed in a few years. He blamed it on chocolate and was determined to quadruple the price of it. This, Owen DiVenski believed will make it less prevalent in America’s diet.
No major changes occurred initially after Owen did all the legal actions to ensure chocolate would be sold four times higher than the previous year. However, the revenue, or lack thereof, in chocolate companies conveyed that more and more individuals in all fifty states were eating less or completely giving up on chocolate as their budgets didn’t allow it.
“After telling my son that we can’t afford chocolate,” the mother looked down at her son, biting her lip, “I informed him he would have to choose another candy.” Channel 5 news of Pheonix, AZ broadcasted this in a grocery store on March 5, 2020. The five year old boy stood empty handed, trying to smile for the camera.
Lindsey Schmecker was a college student at Ohio University, who anticipated her graduation the upcoming June. There were two strikes against her. She was a female and she was a college student. An up rise of hormones controlled her emotions once a month with little to no funds in her bank account. Lindsey could no longer afford chocolate as her consoler when PMS symptoms of mood swings and cramps affected her. It is certain that she was just one of the millions of women who were victims of chocolate’s ludicrous pricing.
Cadbury, Nestle, Hershey, and Godiva had become the delicacy of choice for the elite. While the middle class gave up in their financial struggle to supply chocolate products in their household cupboards.
Amy, a high school senior told a reporter in L.A., “It’s funny to hear my mom tell of wild parties from her teenage years.” She went on smiling, “to think that alcohol was such a commodity back then. Now, we try to get Friday nights started with a few good bars of chocolate.”
That year in 2020 Dr. Owen DiVenski was satisfied with his changes in society. He reasoned with himself that if the population consumes less sugar then the BMI rates will in turn decrease.
“I will be the US Surgeon General to make the change,” Owen whispered to himself while trying to fall asleep. He was on cloud nine fantasizing about all the health professionals in the future referring to Dr. Owen DiVenski as the obesity warrior.
The next morning he was vigorous with inspiration. Owen had quite the proposal for the Senate. He smiled further in thought, “It is a rare, historic moment when the government is against taxes.”
Dr. Divenski connected with all the right politicians and spoke on a lobbyist’s platform to make a change. Two years into his term as US Surgeon General Owen caused every store with even an ounce of chocolate to be taxed ten times higher than the previous year. So what once was rare became extinct as no store could effectively handle the added expense.
It had only been a year ago that Dr. Albert Pedro walked down a red carpet with his 36 family members clapping, cheering, and whistling. He was the first in his family to get a PhD.
Working towards and dreaming of days that he would finally be able to help society as a psychiatrist was the sum of his college experience. This is what he was reminiscing about as a woman in her late 20’s rambled on in his office.
This daydream was so powerful that Dr. Pedro didn’t hear her whimper, “I am just not strong enough to emotionally handle my days when I have PMS.” He snapped back into place and rested his hand on his chin. “Well,” he said with affirmation, “I will have to write you a prescription for chocolate.” It seemed to him as if this scenario happened a million times already as women all over the country were scheduling appointments in hope that health insurance would pay for their monthly treatments.
Betty ironed Owen’s clothes as she always did on Tuesdays. However, this day was memorable as she held up his pants above her head. Looking up at them she thought to herself, “These have to be 8 sizes smaller than when we got married.”
No one could help but notice that for the past two years Owen’s mood has elevated higher and higher. He liked where he stood in life, controlling the country’s eating habits as well as his own. No particle of chocolate has passed his lips in over two years. There were days he missed it. But, what kept him from calling it quits was his aspiration to see the numbers go down after the census and collaboration of Body Mass Index (BMI) medical studies.
What had slowly evolved since Dr. Divenski’s lobbying against chocolate was organized, international crime. The majority of countries who grew the cacao bean, the seed that is manufactured into chocolate, don’t consume this bean themselves. Therefore, they grow it to export it. Without the US needing this trade the value in the cacao bean has gone down, which in turn has lead the price to go down. Therefore, these countries did anything to smuggle this crop across American borders if they made money. In the year 2022 there was an absurd amount of tables, toys, furniture, tennis shoes being shipped from the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Ghana to name a few. Most of these, what seemed random, items were stuffed with cacao beans. This put many of the former CEOs and chocolate industry workers back to work as a secret chocolate alliance formed.
Several homes and businesses across the States were allowing workers to roast and manufacture the cacao bean into the desired treat all while hiding from the government. They termed this the “Underground Choc-Road.” They didn’t find this too difficult to keep secret as long as their finished product was kept out of the public eye.
What was trickier to keep undercover were the “sweet eats.” These are the undercover facilities where outsiders could buy the forbidden candy. Every patron who entered the hidden “sweet eats” learned quickly to be quiet and walk out hiding their chocolate stash by any possible spectator’s eye. There were enough arrests made to keep those remainder workers of “sweet eats” to move as secretly as possible. However, with this being an industry that was so vast and integrated in America, police and government officials knew they could never catch every “sweet eat” or “Undercover Choc-Road” worker.
