On Wednesday, an apology was issued by an Auckland-based charity, the Auckland City Mission, after they unwittingly distributed numerous harmful pineapple-flavoured sweets. These sweets turned out to contain dangerous levels of methamphetamine, potentially fatal. This charity, known for providing essential goods to underprivileged New Zealanders, became privy to the situation on Tuesday afternoon after multiple beneficiary complaints were made about the candies’ distasteful flavour.
A few sweet-tasters, including a minor, a teenager, and a charity worker sought medical help after consuming the candies though they have all been discharged from the hospital. Auckland police’s Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin assured that there are no indications of any illicit activities by the charity.
The Mission issued a statement expressing their extreme disappointment. The sweets were found to have 3g of methamphetamine in a test conducted by the New Zealand Drug Foundation, a heftily dangerous dosage. The standard consumable limit varies between 10-25mg, so these highly contaminated sweets had up to 300 potential doses shares executive director of the foundation, Sarah Helm.
The investigation led authorities to believe that the sweets are likely byproducts of overseas drug smuggling operations. The police have requested those in possession of such candies to surrender them and are looking into how these sweets managed to enter the country, according to Mr Baldwin’s statements – Reuters
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