PDEA: Beware of marijuana-spiked pastries

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency warned the public against accepting pastries from an anonymous sender following an incident in Zambales where several people fell ill after eating baked brownies that turned out to have been spiked with marijuana, an anti-narcotics official said Thursday.

PDEA Director General Undersecretary Jose Gutierrez Jr. said a nurse from a provincial hospital in San Marcelino, Zambales received three boxes of baked brownies from a certain chef as birthday present, which she shared with co-workers.

A few hours later, 17 employees of the hospital complained of dizziness and pain. They were later given immediate medical attention.

The brownies were submitted for laboratory examination and were tested positive for extracted marijuana leaves “purposely” mixed as ingredient in baking the brownies.

“Eating marijuana-spiked brownies, or pastries, present major health risks, and the continuous consumption of these has the potential to be addictive to unsuspecting consumers,” Gutierrez said, adding that marijuana is considered to be a gateway drug and its users have a strong inclination to move on to much-harder drugs later on.

“Thus, we are sending out this stern warning to the public not to accept any box of goodies or pastries from anonymous persons because it may contain illegal drugs. PDEA is currently intensifying its intelligence gathering to arrest unscrupulous elements using this method of drug-pushing,” Gutierrez said.