Drugs found in child's Halloween candy after 'Trunk or Treat' event in Simi Valley
Stock photo: Halloween candy (Photo by Portland Press Herald via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Police are reminding parents to inspect their children's Halloween candy after a bag of prescription painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug were discovered in a child’s bag of candy after an event in Simi Valley Friday evening.
Simi Valley Police said that a mom reported the incident after taking her children to a "Trunk or Treat" event in the old Farmers Insurance building parking lot located at the corner of Cochran Street and Galena Avenue. She learned about the event on social media, which invited children in the neighborhood to get free candy at a drive-thru gathering, where treats were handed to participants through their car windows.
Police said the mom dumped her children's candy on the counter when they got home so she could spray it with disinfectant spray as a COVID-19 precaution. That's when she discovered a clear zip lock bag containing four circular blue pills and one white cylinder-shaped pill.
Authorities determined that the blue bills were Oxycodone, which is an opiate narcotic and the white pill was Xanax, which is a Benzodiazepine medication.
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"These pills are very dangerous and would have a traumatic effect if ingested by children," Simi Valley Police warned in a press release.
It is unclear how the bag made it into the children’s candy supply.
Police recommend that parents go through their children’s candy piece by piece before they eat any of it, and throw out pieces out of the children’s sight that appear improperly wrapped or tampered with.
Police are continuing to investigate the incident. At this time, no suspect has been identified.