When a worker brings weed cake to work, the consequences can endanger lives and bring a business to its knees.
This week, an Auckland man was jailed for 22 months for poisoning nine colleagues with a marijuana-laced cake, bringing back traumatic memories for businessman John Burnett.
“It was one of the most frightening things I’ve ever been through … we were lucky nobody was killed,” he said. “When I got back to the factory, the forklift drivers were doing wheelies. It was just crazy.”
Mr Burnett, who owned the Four Seasons Packhouse in Gisborne in New Zealand’s North Island, said a sweet treat left in the lunch room in 2001 resulted in a bitter taste.
He had been out that morning, but received a call from packhouse manager Lynn Holmberg to say people were getting sick “all over the place” following the 9.30am morning tea break. A young man who had snuck a piece out of the fridge prematurely had been the first to fall at 8am.
Ambulances arrived, 14 people were transported to hospital and the people who baked the cake confessed to the police by the end of the day.
‘We very nearly shut the business down’
“There were those who actually used marijuana and they thought it was one of the best cakes they’d ever had,” Mr Burnett said.
“There were others who’d never used it and they felt violated. We very nearly shut the business down, to be honest. We had a real problem with morale [and] production went to hell.”
Looking back, Mr Burnett said there was a “funny side” to what happened, recounting a dialogue he had with one of his employees.
“One of the guys came over to me and said, ‘Man, that cake was a good one, they must have used the best of ingredients.’ He almost wanted the bloody recipe,” he said.
But 17 years on, thinking about the stunt still brought a feeling of frustration. “It disgusts me to be honest,” he said. “It was an absolutely terrifying experience.”
‘It was like I was on a rolling ship’
After trying “a really small piece” of the cake in the morning, Ms Holmberg said the floor rose up to meet her.
“I went to walk through the packhouse and it was like I was on a rolling ship,” she said. “I had to shut all the machinery down and call the police, [but] I couldn’t even call 111.”
Ms Holmberg described the feeling as similar to coming out of anaesthetic and said it affected some employees worse than others.
“Some of them were used to using it [marijuana] and didn’t have much impact but we had pregnant women and old women on heart medication … they put a lot of lives at risk.”
‘A relatively high level of premeditation’
Graham Jones, 58, was sentenced at North Shore District Court on Tuesday to a total of 22 months in prison for his December 13 cook-up, which ultimately blew the lid on the cannabis-growing operation in his backyard.
Nine of his colleagues were admitted to hospital as a result of contaminated cake, one of whom believed they were having a heart attack as a result of eating it.
Jones, who confessed to being a long-term marijuana user, said he had grown the plant only for personal use prior to the incident.
Judge Nevin Dawson pointed out Jones’ behaviour came with “a relatively high level of premeditation”.
While acknowledging Jones did not intend to hurt people, Judge Dawson told him he had been “extremely foolish”.
“Your offending had a very high potential for harm because it happened in a workplace that uses heavy machinery and equipment,” he said.
“The victims were very vulnerable in circumstances where workmates would have had no reason to suspect there was anything wrong with eating that cake.
“It is a normal thing for people to bring cakes to work and for other people to eat them.”
Credit: www.smh.com.au