Although trick or treating is regarded as one of the highlights of Halloween, now that the festive weekend has passed, more and more horror stories are popping up.
There's been a lot of controversy surrounding Halloween candies - with some having found to have needles and even razor blades inconspicuously placed within the chocolate.
Strangely enough, a pharmacy decided to give a different kind of treat to children for Halloween this year: bipolar medication. Munchies (Vice) reports:
"After a client of a Quebec City pharmacy accidentally dropped her son's bipolar medication, which was wrapped in a blister package, other clients picked up the fallen pills and put them back next to a nearby candy basket. And for reasons which still aren't entirely clear to Quebec City police officers, the pills eventually got mixed in with the sweets."
Const. Melissa Cliche told CBC: "So, unfortunately, we don't know how, an employee just mixed it with the candy by accident and distributed it to the kids." Cliche also noted that seven of the bipolar pill ended up in both the bags and the hands of trick-or-treating kids.
Parents have always been concerned regarding drug-laced candies making its way into children's baskets every Halloween. However, these have been rare occurrences, usually linked to amounts of edible weed, not over the counter prescription drugs.
In this case, though, the pills were apparently Quetiapine and Divalproex sodium - the former is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, while the other is "a powerful anti-epilepsy drug."
While these potent medications are typically used to help with drastic mood swings caused by bipolar disorder, they can still have some adverse side effects such as trembling, nausea, paranoia, and even suicidal thoughts.
It no surprise that this incident gave parents such a scare (maybe they wanted to give parents a trick instead of a treat?) in the Quebec City vicinity. Thankfully, police has confirmed that they meds were found, and that none of the children consumed the drug.
