LSD FOUND IN GUMMI BEARS

Gummi bears laced with LSD were found in a police drugs raid.

Police found the bag of 44 candies when they raided a home in
Cranbrook last March. This week the results of lab tests showed the
gummi bears were laced with the drug, which causes hallucinations.

50-year-old Christianne Bateman and her 18-year-old son Benjamin have
been charged with possessing illegal drugs with intent to traffic
following the raid, which also turned up 1 lb of marijuana, and one
third of a pound of hashish.

Police also allegedly found someone attempting to make "weed oil" -
where the marijuana tar is leeched from the leaves and stalk of the plant.

Cpl Chris Faulkner of Cranbrook Detachment said he does not believe
the drugs were intended to be distributed maliciously.

But he added: "It is a concerning new trend - you just need to have a
teenager who buys a few of these while he is out partying, and has
some left in his bedroom, and a younger sibling finds them and thinks
they are candy. There could be a very serious medical issue there.

"There has been a lot of media hype about this, but I just wanted to
throw it out there that we had found this to make people more aware
that this could happen.

"Parents should make sure they know where their kids' candy is coming from."

Faulkner said that he has not come across many cases of LSD use in
recent years, but that previously it was distributed on sugar cubes
and on blotting paper. It is sometimes distributed on small squares
of paper with cartoons printed on them.

He does not know what the strength of the drug was on the jelly
candies, which were dipped into liquid LSD. One dose or "hit" of LSD
has a street value of around $5.