The sweets were purchased from a shop on Váci Street, the relative told Blikk.

In response to Blikk's inquiry, the Budapest Police Headquarters stated: "An investigation has been launched against an unknown perpetrator on suspicion of inducing addiction-inducing chemicals into their products, as several individuals – including minors – have been hospitalized in recent days after consuming gummy candy purchased from a CBD shop in the city centre. Investigators have seized the shop's entire gummy candy stock and will subject it to expert examination."

"It is likely to be a synthetic cannabinoid, which can be very problematic because it is effective in extremely small quantities and can easily cause an overdose. It is very dangerous and can even cause fatalities," Dr. Sándor Funk, an addiction specialist, told Blikk.

According to the expert, such substances may be on the market because they probably haven't received an official identification code yet, so authorities cannot specifically monitor them.

Although Blikk's informant says no-one has suffered any lasting harm as far as is known, Dr. Sándor Funk believes the patients may not recover fully.

"If something causes such a severe, days-long, coma-like state, permanent harm can occur, depending on what part of the brain was affected by the substance. The destruction of nerve cells in the cortex can cause symptoms similar to dementia (forgetfulness, cogitive decline), and even vegetative problems can occur," he said.

Store Statement

After the publication of our article, the CBD shop on Váci Street responded to events with this statement:

"In response to the news in the press, and as the operator of the CBD shop on Váci Street, we would like to share the following information:

Our company imports the gummy candy from the Netherlands as part of regular trade.

Co-ordinating with the police and the toxicology department treating the patients, we understand that the illnesses occurred in the past few days, leading us to believe that the latest batch of products might have been contaminated, as no similar problems have been reported by any customers before.

Our colleagues immediately removed the affected products from our store shelves on June 26^th, upon learning about the related issues.

We notified the Dutch manufacturer about the incident and requested that they immediately recall the affected products from all other retail shelves as well. We also ask anyone who purchased this type of gummy candy from us to return it immediately for further examination; we will refund the purchase price of the gummy candy.

All representatives of our company are deeply saddened by the incident, and we wish a swift recovery to the patients and their families. We have sent the documentation of the product and the lab tests examining its composition to the hospital and the police, and we will continue to do everything we can to assist both in treating the patients and in the investigation to identify those responsible.

Finally, we would like to emphasize that, to the best of our knowledge, the gummy candy sold in our store does not contain any drugs or ingredients classified as new psychoactive substances. Our store remains open as usual."

Copy-editor:
Marion Merrick 
Language editor and author: Now You See It, Now You Don’t  / Surprising Expats / Budapest Retro

Original article in Hungarian was published in Blikk 

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