Jamaica’s education minister said that more than sixty children have been taken to the hospital after consuming sweets with cannabis.
Fayval Williams tweeted about the fact that the students were from the St. Ann’s Bay Area. It is approximately 50 miles from Kingston, which is the capital. She said some of the children also suffered from hallucinations and vomiting. However, none of the reported students are in severe condition.
Miss Williams wrote on Twitter that many of the children had to be given IV treatment.
The doctors & nurses are doing all they can to ensure the students recover,
One little boy said he only had ONE sweetie. That’s how potent this product is. DANGER!
Moreover, although the children were said to be from St. Ann’s Bay Primary, the local news says they were from Ocho Rios Primary School nearby. The children were between the ages of seven and twelve.
Later, the school’s principal said that the children bought the sweets from a “lone vendor.” Moreover, a picture of the packaging was also posted by her, which said that the sweets were not to be sold to minors.
Each sweet is said to consist of 100mg of psychoactive substance called delta-8 THC. Furthermore, it is generally a very high dose for an adult.
According to the FDA,
Delta-8 has “intoxicating effects.”
The non-approved sweets were produced by a US-based company in California, where cannabis is legal.
A small amount of cannabis, also called marijuana, was made legal for personal use in Jamaica in 2015. However, the health minister, Christopher Tufton, said that the import of edibles containing drugs is not allowed by the government.
Moreover, a similar kind of incident occurred merely a week later in South Africa, where ninety children fell ill after eating drug-laced muffins. They were purchased from a street vendor.
