In New Zealand, a charity organization accidentally distributed sweets with a lethal dose of methamphetamine to the needy
Kyiv • UNN
Up to 400 people received parcels of candy containing a lethal dose of methamphetamine. Police are investigating how the drugs got into the charity packages for the needy.
Up to 400 people in New Zealand received parcels that may have contained lollipops with drugs. Police are conducting a criminal investigation to find out how this happened. UNN writes about this with reference to The Guardian.
Details
A charitable organization working with homeless people in New Zealand unknowingly distributed candy in food packages with a potentially lethal dose of the highly addictive drug methamphetamine.
The Auckland City Mission reported that staff had begun contacting 400 people to trace the parcels, and the New Zealand police had launched a criminal investigation.
City missionary Helen Robinson reported that at least eight families, including at least one child, had consumed the contaminated sweets. No one was hospitalized. People said the candy tasted disgusting and was quickly spit out.
The candy was donated to the charity by a citizen. According to Robinson, the charity only accepts donations of commercially produced food in sealed packaging. The candies, labeled by the Malaysian brand Rinda, "looked exactly like this when they were donated." In a written statement, the maker of the Rinda candy said that the company learned about the incident from the news and would cooperate with the authorities.
The candies were solid blocks of methamphetamine wrapped in lollipop wrappers. The amount of methamphetamine in each candy was 300 times higher than the usual norm and could be fatal.
Ben Birks Ang, a representative of the New Zealand Drug Foundation (an organization that reviews and develops drug policy), said that disguising drugs as harmless goods is a common method of cross-border smuggling, and that most of the candy could have been distributed throughout New Zealand.
According to him, the sweets had a high street value of up to $608 per lollipop, which indicates that the donation by the unknown citizen was accidental, not a targeted attack.