Advertisement

Six children hospitalised so far this year after accidentally eating cannabis jellies

Parents are being warned about the dangers of cannabis jellies, with experts saying the sweets ca...
Newstalk
Newstalk

15.47 21 Oct 2021


Share this article


Six children hospitalised so f...

Six children hospitalised so far this year after accidentally eating cannabis jellies

Newstalk
Newstalk

15.47 21 Oct 2021


Share this article


Parents are being warned about the dangers of cannabis jellies, with experts saying the sweets can be ten times more potent than a joint.

Six children under the age of ten have ended up in Temple Street Hospital this year after accidentally eating the illegal sweets.

It comes as gardaí question two men after finding the edibles during a search of a flat in Dublin 8 yesterday.

Advertisement

The packages of the jellies are often designed to resemble popular brands

Pat O'Mahony from the Food Safety Authority says they're packaged to look like regular sweets.

He said: “There were six children under the age of 10 years of age, who were brought to the hospital in various conditions - from drowsy to comatose.

“All had gotten their hands, inadvertently, on sweets that looked and probably tasted good, but had THC at fairly high levels that would be problematic even for an adult.”

The HSE's Clinical Lead on Addiction Services, Dr Eamon Keenan, says they're seeing the edibles more in Ireland.

He observed: “It takes a while to kick in - much longer than, for example, if you were smoking cannabis.

“Overdose can happen because you ingest too many of the products. They’re not regulated, so you don’t know exactly what the content is.”

The FSAI has previously described the emergence of cannabis jellies as a “sinister attempt to sell narcotics in the form of sweets”.

The latest warnings about the sweets come ahead of Halloween.

Reporting by Emma Tyrrell, additional reporting by Stephen McNeice
Main image via An Garda Síochana

Share this article


Read more about

Cannabis Jellies FSAI Gardai

Most Popular