WELLINGTON: Pineapple sweets dished out by a New Zealand charity have tested positive for potentially lethal amounts of methamphetamine, police said on Wednesday, sparking an urgent race to remove them from the streets.

A child, a teenager and a charity worker have already been taken to hospital after they tasted the candies. Although none are seriously ill, police have launched a criminal investigation and are now trying to track down up to 400 other people who may have received the sweets.

“We need to round these up as quickly as we can,” said Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin, adding that 16 of the sweets had been found so far. Police suggested the drugs might have been packaged inside the distinctive yellow “Rinda” wrapping by traffickers or dealers to evade detection.

They are then believed to have been donated to anti-poverty charity the Auckland City Mission, which inadvertently distributed them via a food bank. “Drug importation is complex, and organised criminal groups use a range of measures and techniques to try and evade enforcement agencies, not only in New Zealand, but around the world,” Baldwin said.

A child and a teenager were taken to hospital after tasting the sweets and spitting them out. Both are okay, Baldwin added. A charity worker was also treated for symptoms consistent with ingesting methamphetamine, but later discharged.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation said a test sample of an innocuous-looking piece of white candy in a bright yellow wrapper indicated it contained methamphetamine.

Foundation spokeswoman Sarah Helm said the tested sweet contained approximately three grams of meth — hundreds of times greater than the common dose taken by users.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2024