A mother accidentally gave her child a "lolly" made out of meth, the Auckland City Mission says, as it tries to contact up to 400 families that may have been handed contaminated food parcels.
The alarm has been raised after the discovery of blocks of methamphetamine disguised as Rinda-brand pineapple lollies in parcels handed out by the mission.
At least eight families had been caught in the contamination so far, Missioner Helen Robinson told a press conference on Wednesday.
In one case the "lolly" had been given to a child, but they had spat it out immediately.
Robinson said the taste of the meth "lollies" was bitter or "acrid" meaning they were not eaten, although people were offered help because the pills contain a massive dose.
According to the NZ Drug Foundation, which was called to test the pills, each 3 gram lolly was the equivalent of about 300 doses of methamphatime and potentially fatal.
Photo: Supplied / Auckland City Mission
Symptoms would include chest pains, a racing heart, seizures, hyperthermia, delirium, loss of consciousness.
Between 300 and 400 families had received parcels since July and were being contacted.
The "lollies" were taken from their sealed packets and mixed with others across the parcels. While it's believed only 20-"lolly" packets may have been spread between the parcels, there was no way to tell which bundles may have been contaminated.
The donation of the drugs would likely have been an accident due to their street value of about $1000, Robinson said.
Speaking to Midday Report, Robinson explained the process of donation.
"The process of donating food to the mission is you might come and you might have a bag of food and we only receive non-perishable items from members of the public and so that bag would come and we would weigh it and we would acknowledge you and give you some kind of receipt but we don't go through each one of the items or bags...
"It is very possible that there is more than one bag."
Between getting a complaint about the taste on Tuesday afternoon and testing the lollies, two staff also tried them, and also spat them out. About two hours after the complaint the public was notified.
Staff were being given medical support, Robinson said.
The mission hands out about 50,000 parcels each year to families in need.
