EIGHT families in New Zealand have eaten sweets from a food bank that were laced with a "potentially lethal" dose of methamphetamine. Police are now racing to trace the sweets that were delivered to as many as 400 people by Auckland City Mission. The anti-poverty charity said the pineapple-flavoured candies were wrapped in Rinda brand labelling and donated anonymously by a member of the public in a sealed retail package.
The sweets were then distributed into food parcels. Each sweet contained 300 times the dose of methamphetamine , or meth, normally taken for one “hit” by drug users. Police said it was "a bit early to say" whether the incident was accidental or a targeted drug operation .
Read more on street drugs So far, they have recovered 29 sweets from members of the public, according to a recent statement on New Zealand Police's website. The charity alerted the authorities on Tuesday after being told by a customer about some "funny tasting" sweets. Helen Robinson, chief executive of Auckland City Mission, said at least eight families, but no one had yet been hospitalised.
She also knew of an instance where a parent gave one of the candies to her child, who immediately spat it out. Most read in Health Some of the charity's staff members then tried the sweets and began to “feel funny” after reporting an “acrid and revolting” taste, she said. That was because it was actually 3g of the highly addictive drug, tests by the NZ Drug Foundation later revealed.
Accordi.