Dangerous drugs 'disguised' as food and beverages

Drugs "disguised" as food (Source: Da Nang City Police)

Recently, Vietnam has recorded the appearance of drugs "disguised" in two forms, the first is goods (cakes, candies, functional foods, pharmaceuticals...) containing drugs; the second is drugs mixed and marinated in food, drinks, herbs, electronic cigarettes...

These drugs are easily exploited by criminals to mix and trade in the market. These foods are aimed at students at schools.

If anyone accidentally uses these mixed and marinated goods and foods, they can easily get poisoned, cause strong hallucinations, psychosis, and even be life-threatening.

Identifying "disguised" drugs

According to the Police Agency, the type of drug "disguised" as food is cakes and candies containing drugs that are produced and packaged with permission from authorities in a number of countries around the world .

These types are allowed to be produced with the prescribed content stated on the product packaging and have user warnings.

Users of the product will lead to poisoning as in the case in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province in October 2021. In this case, the subject bought candy from a supermarket in the US and brought it home for his family to use but did not tell them that it contained drugs. Users who overdose on this product will endanger their lives.

Another form is drugs mixed and packaged in the form of food and drinks, using sophisticated criminal tricks to conceal them from authorities for smooth transportation and sale.

These drugs are "hidden" in the form of weight loss tea packages, cordyceps, or fruit juice powder packages printed with confusing words such as Crispy fruit, Crispy fruit grape, Mango or "strawberry juice," "happy water," "White Coffee," "CHALI."

In addition, there are many other types of "disguised" drugs such as "lazy cakes" containing marijuana; e-cigarette essential oils; Ribena grape juice containing ketamine, lemon tea, soft drinks containing the drugs ketamine, MDMA; "cordyceps" drugs...

Recently, the media has reported on a series of cases of drug use "under cover" being discovered, typically the case of selling marijuana cakes on the Internet in Hanoi city which was promptly discovered and eliminated by authorities in December 2019;

The case of a group of students in Hoanh Bo (Quang Ninh) using candy containing drugs (THC-marijuana), being poisoned and having to be treated in emergency in October 2021;

(Source: Da Nang City Police)

The case of selling “mango juice” containing drugs in Ho Chi Minh City in October 2020; the case of selling “grape juice” containing drugs in Hai Chau district (Da Nang city) in April 2022;

Case of using chocolate containing ADB-BUTINACA drug (listed in list IIC of Decree 57/2022/ND-CP dated August 25, 2022 of the Government) in Dong Anh, Hanoi in June 2022.

The police agency said that these drugs were transported to Vietnam as hand-carried goods, by road, water, and air, and were sold at online shops, entertainment venues, bars, pubs, etc.

It is worth noting that bad guys are targeting educational institutions, universities, high schools, etc. to lure and entice students to use drugs.

Advise people to be vigilant

Faced with the complicated and increasing situation of drugs “disguised” as food, drinks, herbs, electronic cigarettes, etc., the Ministry of Public Security has directed the police of all units and localities to strengthen propaganda work, proactively grasp the situation, detect and combat this type of crime.

The police also noted that, in addition to traditional methods and tricks, drug criminals now thoroughly use information technology and the Internet to exchange, buy and sell and shorten transaction time with high security, typically by creating closed chat groups on foreign social networking platforms such as Telegram, Viber, etc.

The subjects also changed their transaction and transportation methods by using intermediary transportation units such as Grab, Bee... to transport and trade drugs to avoid detection, investigation and discovery by authorities.

Those who transport, store, and trade these "disguised" drugs, when arrested, often hide their subjective consciousness and admit they did not know they were drugs in order to deny their guilt.

The police force recommends that when people discover tea packages, fruit juices, and foods with the above characteristics, they should immediately report them to the police; at the same time, educate their children to be vigilant, not to use strange foods and drinks of unknown origin to protect their health.

At the same time, it is recommended that people raise their vigilance, regularly update and monitor information on the harmful effects of drugs (especially new types of drugs); methods and tricks of drug criminals to recognize and prevent drug-related risks to themselves, their families and society./.

According to Vietnam+

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