Charges over 'drugs' in lollies

Feb 26, 2009

Two teenage girls from Canberra's north have been charged after allegedly leaving drug-laced lollies in the children's play area of McDonald's restaurant in Gungahlin.

Police allege that the two girls concealed over-the-counter, non-prescription tablets - one a mild stimulant and the other a pain killing medication - inside soft lollies and deliberately left them in the children's play area.

The two 16-year-olds, from Palmerston and Harrison, were taken into custody after a five-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl allegedly ingested some of the tainted sweets. Their mother called triple 0 about 3pm, after her daughter showed her the lollies. ACT Ambulance officers treated both children at the scene, neither of whom were harmed in the incident.

Police initially took four girls into custody but two were released after they were interviewed. The teenage girls have been charged with acts endangering health and will appear before the ACT Children's Court today. Police are examining CCTV footage to assist in their investigations.

Gungahlin McDonald's operations manager Mathew Peters said last night the fast food chain took the incident very seriously. "We called the cops straight away and we go through all our avenues as well, so we'd fill out an incident report... and we'll send that to our head office and they'll look into it," he said. McDonald's priority was its duty of care to customers. "The police have to get to the bottom of it and find out exactly what happened before we can make any calls on what we neeed to do to make (our restaurants) safer."

Source: The Canberra Times – 26 February 2009.
The Canberra Times is published by The Federal Capital Press Pty Ltd - 9 Pirie Street, Fyshwick.

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