17 Filipinos fall ill after eating marijuana-laced pastries

The Philippine anti-narcotics agency warned the public on Thursday about the proliferation of marijuana-laced pastries on the streets after 17 medical workers fell ill after eating brownies. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Undersecretary Jose Gutierrez Jr. issued the reminder following a recent report that homemade baked goods containing marijuana was presented as a birthday gift. He said the incident occurred last week when a nurse in a hospital in San Marcelino, northern province of Zambales received three boxes of baked brownies from a certain chef as birthday present, which she shared with co-workers. Later that day, 17 employees of the hospital felt dizziness and pain after eating the brownies, he said, adding that the victims were given immediate medical attention afterwards. "The brownies were then submitted for laboratory examination that yielded positive result for the presence of marijuana. The specimen was confirmed to contain extracted marijuana leaves purposely mixed as ingredients in baking the brownies," Gutierrez said. 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, he said, noting 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/pastries from anonymous persons because it may contain illegal drugs. PDEA is presently intensifying its intelligence gathering to arrest unscrupulous elements using this method of drug-pushing," Gutierrez said.