Nottinghamshire Police received reports of people falling ill after consuming chocolate bought at Mansfield Market on Saturday. The force has now said Psilocin (1) - found in magic mushrooms - and THC - a substance found in cannabis - were discovered in some of the bars.
A 63-year-old woman was arrested in connection with the case. She has since been bailed.
Tina Potter, head of incidents, Food Standards Agency, said: “We are working with local authorities, the UK Health Security Agency and Nottinghamshire Police to investigate an incident following reports of illness after eating chocolate bought from Mansfield Market in Nottinghamshire. The chocolate was both labelled as ‘Cali-Gold’ and unbranded. If you have purchased chocolate matching this description, it should not be consumed but instead handed in to the police.”
(1) pronounced sil-uh-sin - a Psilocybin metabolite with strong hallucinogenic potency, produced after ingestion of the mushroom Psilocybe mexicana
Psilocin and its phosphorylated cousin, Psilocybin, were first isolated and named in 1958 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann. Hofmann obtained the chemicals from laboratory-grown specimens of the entheogenic mushroom Psilocybe mexicana.
Ian told the BBC he had purchased 10 bars of what was being sold as “mystery” chocolate, which came in gold wrapping without any writing on. That evening his wife Kim gave the confectionery to Amelia-Ann, 13, Jacob, 12, Issacc, 10, and Emilie-Natasha, eight, as a treat but said they soon began feeling sick, hallucinating and acting “spaced out”.
“My youngest daughter only had a little bit and just generally felt sick but didn’t seem too bad,” she said. “Isaac, he was delirious, he was confused, he kept staring at his hands and he was stroking my walls. He kept seeing a dark figure, hallucinating.”
She said Amelia-Ann became “very giddy and confused” and was crying, talking in a nonsensical way and felt sick and dizzy, while Jacob was acting “spaced”. When Isaac, who has ADHD and autism, began to worsen Kim called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital.
“It sounded like he was choking, a gargling kind of noise,” she said. “He couldn’t speak to us, his tongue was sticking out of his mouth, he went all floppy, he just wasn’t with it.”
Obviously, buying unlabelled chocolate is fraught with risk but not usually that associated with taking psychedelic drugs … a terrifying experience for parents and children … 