These unconscious gestures could have turned into a tragedy. Two Canadians have been arrested in the center of the country for giving cannabis candy to young people for Halloween, while a child has been hospitalized near Vancouver after being the victim of a similar incident. Adults can legally buy cannabis in Canada, which in 2018 became the first country in the G20 and the second country in the world to legalize recreational cannabis.
Police in Winnipeg, Manitoba, announced on Wednesday that they have taken into custody a 63-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman suspected of having distributed candy containing THC, the main psychoactive molecule in cannabis, on the evening of ‘Halloween to children. In total, more than a dozen young people, aged 6 to 16, collected the psychoactive sweets according to the police, who opened an investigation.
“I’m not surprised,” laments a police officer
“As a parent, I am devastated by what happened,” said Winnipeg police officer Dani McKinnon. “As a police officer, unfortunately, I am not surprised,” she added, calling on parents to check the contents of their children’s harvest. Each of the two suspects faces 13 charges, including for distributing cannabis to minors and endangering the lives of others.
In the west of the country, in the suburbs of Vancouver in British Columbia, an 11-year-old child was hospitalized on Monday after falling ill after unknowingly ingesting candy containing THC. In this case, the police were unable to identify the hearth from which the sweets came.