Dozens Of Jamaican Children Hospitalized After Eating Cannabis Sweets, Police Searching For Vendor

Over five dozen elementary school children in Jamaica were hospitalized on Monday after unknowingly eating candy laced with cannabis, according to officials.

Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams told local news media that none of the children are in critical condition, according to local doctors.

Though the candy caused the students “to vomit and hallucinate,” Willams posted Monday on Twitter/X in which she added that some needed to be put on an intravenous drip.

“Over 60 primary school students had to be taken to hospital. Parents please beware!!” Williams wrote. “One little boy said he only had ONE sweetie. That’s how potent this product is.”

What Happened

"This morning, a lone vendor — no one knows him — came by and sold a product to our boys and girls, and we realized that after eight o'clock, going nine o'clock, they started to show symptoms — vomiting, feeling dizzy, blacking out — and so we rushed to the nurse and we contacted the Ministry of Education, the police, and the Ocho Rios Health Centre," Suzette Barnes-Wilson, Ocho Rios school principal told the Jamaica Observer.

"We got a bus to take our boys and girls to the hospital and thankfully, to God be the glory, they are doing much better now," Barnes-Wilson said. "It's assumed that ganja is a part of it… but we leave that for the authorities to tell us exactly what is in that." 

Education Minister Williams posted a photo of the candy, which came in a rainbow-colored package.

Jamaica Teachers' Association Weighs In

Leighton Johnson, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association said the law is very clear on the matter of selling and about these products being accessible to minors. "I think we just need to get back to the point where we really enforce the law as it relates to the use of marijuana," he told the Observer Monday evening.

“School administrators have long been battling with this kind of substance abuse among students from as low as grade seven, and now we see where it is being consumed by even students at the primary level," Johnson said.