Mourners Accidentally Ingest Hash Cake At Funeral In Germany

An 18-year-old from the northeastern German city of Rostock got a nasty shock when her mother delivered her hash-infused cake to a funeral party. After multiple mourners went to the hospital, the young woman is now under investigation and could be charged with up to 13 counts of negligence and bodily injury, in addition to other crimes.

The mixup took place in August, but German police waited to publicize the incident until now out of respect for the funeral party, who had been merely following the German tradition of afternoon coffee and cake at a restaurant after burying their loved one in Wiethagen.

Little did they know that one of the restaurant employees had put their 18-year-old in charge of making the day’s baked goods. Things went horribly wrong when the worker accidentally grabbed one of the cakes out of the freezer that her kid had intended for her own personal use.

Thanks to her mom’s confusion, the daughter now faces multiple criminal charges, which include disturbing a funeral and breaking German narcotics laws.

The cake’s effects on the funeral party were not minor. 13 attendees reported feeling “dizzy and nauseous,” according to one publication. An ambulance was called to take one women to the hospital, and other mourners went to get professional treatment the same day.

Funeral Guests Press Charges

After realizing what had happened, the attendees pressed charges against the responsible parties, which authorities decided was the daughter who had made the cake for personal use.

On the day that the funeral disaster was announced, it also came to light that six Germans from the city of Darmstadt were hospitalized after consuming hash brownies. At least one of them had collapsed at the party where the pastries were served, having not been aware of the brownies’ potency.

The United States’ National Institute on Drug Abuse identifies several symptoms of marijuana overdose. “Instead of relaxation and euphoria, some people experience anxiety, fear, distrust, or panic,” says the organization’s website. “These effects are more common when a person takes too much, the marijuana has an unexpectedly high potency, or the person is inexperienced.”

Also of note, the NIDA allows that people who ingest large doses of marijuana may experience unpleasant but temporary “acute psychosis, which includes hallucinations, delusions, and a loss of the sense of personal identity.”

Accidental consumption has been of primary concerns to many legal marijuana policy makers, some of whom have instituted strict packaging and flavoring regulations for cannabis products. Some studies have shown that cannabis-related trips to the hospital rose after marijuana legalization.

Up to the current date, there has been no widely accepted death that has been confirmed to have taken place via marijuana consumption. In June, a coroner from Louisiana reported that a woman had died from a THC overdose, but other officials have cast doubt on that interpretation of her death.

Recently, German prime minister Angela Merkel’s political party Christian Democratic Union has openly mulled the potential for legalizing cannabis in the country.