"Shared Candy with Friends..." Vietnamese High School Students Test Positive for Group Drug Use

Thirteen high school students in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, shared this candy and tested positive for drugs.
[Photo by Tien Phong]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] High school students in Vietnam showed positive drug test results after sharing candies brought from a coffee shop.

Local media such as Tien Phong reported that on the 25th (local time), 13 high school students in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh Province, suddenly experienced symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, and abdominal pain during morning assembly after arriving at school, and were immediately taken to the hospital.

Urine tests at the hospital showed positive results for marijuana (cannabis) in all of them.

According to reports, the students complained of these symptoms after sharing the candies together. Originally, these candies are jelly-type sweets popular overseas. However, the packaging of the candies the students ate had the name written in English but did not indicate the country of origin.

Additionally, there was a warning in English stating "Product for adults over 21 years old only, keep out of reach of children and animals," along with the phrase "Contains cannabis ingredients, activates after 60 minutes."

According to police investigation, Student A (15), who first shared the candies, stated that he visited a relative's house who runs a cafe on the 24th and found candies that looked tasty inside a toy box, so he took them.

In response, A’s cousin testified, "The problematic candies were brought a long time ago by another relative from the United States," and added, "No one paid attention to them, so they were left in the toy box." He also added, "I didn’t even know A took those candies."

The police investigated the cafe run by A’s cousin but did not find any additional candies like the ones the students ate.

The Ha Long City health authorities fined the cafe 2 million dong (about 100,000 won) for unhygienic food handling. They are also conducting further investigations, suspecting that drugs disguised as candies are being distributed.

Meanwhile, it was reported that all the students were discharged safely and returned home on the morning of the 26th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.