By James Myers, OAN Staff
Friday, August 16, 2024 3:13 PM
Food banks in New Zealand are searching for a cache of potentially methamphetamine-laced candy that was mistakenly distributed to homeless people at a charity event.
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New Zealand police have so far found 41 blocks of methamphetamine wrapped in candy wrappers, each potentially containing a lethal dose of the drug.
Police said in a statement that 24 more tainted treats were being collected from members of the public late Friday, bringing the total number of treats mistakenly distributed in food packets to at least 65. It is unclear how many more are in circulation, Detective Glenn Baldwin said.
However, no one has been seriously harmed by the candy.
An unidentified individual donated the candy, which was wrapped in Malaysian confectionery brand Linda and looked identical to boiled candy, to the Auckland City Mission over the past six weeks, the charity said in a statement on Wednesday.
Officers began testing recipients of up to 400 food parcels after customers reported eating “funny tasting” sweets the previous day, which drug tests revealed were solid methamphetamine.
Three people who ate the tainted sweets were treated in hospital but have since been released, and the city’s missionary Helen Robinson said most who ate the sweets immediately vomited them out because of their “horrible” taste.
According to the New Zealand Drug Foundation, a drug testing and policy organisation which first sampled the candy, each candy contains up to 300 times the amount of methamphetamine a normal person would ingest – a potentially lethal dose.
Foundation spokesman Ben Birks-Ang said disguising drugs as harmless products was a common tactic for cross-border smuggling, meaning many more candies could have been distributed across New Zealand.
Additionally, Linda Food Industries said its Malaysian factory was inspected by the Malaysian Ministry of Health on Thursday and samples were taken for laboratory testing.
“Linda Food Industries wishes to clarify that it does not export any goods directly to New Zealand,” the company said in a statement.
Despite this, New Zealand authorities have yet to say how many tainted candies the Auckland City Mission distributed, or the possibility that the tainted treats might reappear, Baldwin said. The retail-sized bag is estimated to have contained 40 Linda’s pineapple candies, suggesting that more than one bag was donated to charity.
The tainted sweets had a street value of $608 each and were likely an accident rather than deliberate, Burks Ann said Wednesday.
Methamphetamine is a powerful and highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It occurs as an odorless, bitter-tasting, white, crystalline powder that dissolves easily in water and alcohol.
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