Two children hospitalized after eating THC-infused candy accidentally given out by a local food bank

Police said candy infused with THC was unknowing distributed to families through a local food bank. By Harmeet Kaur and Dan Shepherd, CNN

(CNN) -- Two children were hospitalized after eating THC-infused candy that was accidentally distributed to their families by the Utah Food Bank.

Last week, the First Baptist Church of Roy, a partner agency with the food bank, handed out 63 bags of food to 63 families at a distribution point set up at the church. The bags contained Nerds Rope candy infused with a high dosage of THC, the Roy City Police Department said on Facebook.

Ferrara Candy Company, the parent company of Nerds, called the product a counterfeit and said it is not affiliated with their company.

Police said that they believe each bag of food contained three to four packages of candy, and that each family received one bag. Law enforcement and the Utah Food Bank are reaching out to families who may have received the candy. They do not yet know where it came from.

"We are absolutely horrified that this product went out to any of our partner agencies, and can easily see how volunteers would not have known what to look for," Ginette Bott, president and CEO of the Utah Food Bank, said in a statement to CNN affiliate KUTV.

According to photos shared by the Roy City Police Department, the packages of candy were labeled as "Medicated Nerds Rope" and contained 400 mg of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana that gives people the feeling of being high.

Under Colorado law, a single, standardized serving of THC consists of 10 milligrams.

A total of five children have been affected by the incident so far, Bott told CNN.

An 11-year-old girl and a 5-year-old girl were taken to a local hospital after inadvertently consuming the candy, while three others had access to it in some way, she said.

Bott said that the 5-year-old girl was released from the hospital on Saturday morning, but that she didn't know the status of the 11-year-old.

Primary Children's Medical Center declined to comment, citing patient privacy laws.

"We are hopeful that there are no more candies out there," Bott said. "We are in the process this morning of trying to backtrack through the one million pounds of food we received this month and trace what we can."

Feeding America, of which the Utah Food Bank is a member, reached out to food banks around the country to educate them on identifying other THC-infused candy and preventing similar incidents from happening in the future.

The Utah Food Bank distributed 45.7 million pounds of food, the equivalent of 38 million meals, to people across the state last year, according to its website.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated which organization distributed the tainted candy and which group reached out to other food banks around the country.

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