Hong Kong Employees Get Caught with Weed Gummy Bears

Colorful gummy bears photo via iStock / RA-Photos

Kids, in less than a month, marijuana possession will be legal in Massachusetts—but that doesn’t mean you can exchange weed-laced gummy bears with your coworkers. Employees at Hong Kong restaurant in Harvard Square are learning this the hard way.

Cambridge Wicked Local was at a Cambridge License Commission hearing last week when owner Paul Lee was on the stand for allegedly allowing employees to exchange candy containing THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana.

According to the news outlet, Cambridge Police Officer Matthew Grassi was summoned to Hong Kong around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5, to deal with an employee who was “freaking out and talking nonsense… She might have been given what they refer to as drugged-up gummy bears,” he said during the hearing. The unidentified employee, who allegedly ate two gummy bears, was transported to the hospital.

A manager at Hong Kong admitted he gave the THC-overdosing employee weed-laced gummy bears, which he had procured from a doorman. The manager was charged with distribution, and posted bail, according to the article.

Despite the new law on the books as of December 15, unlicensed distribution of marijuana will “likely” still be a punishable offense, Wicked Local notes. The passage of Question 4 allows for adults 21 and older to use marijuana, possess up to 10 ounces of it, and grow up to 12 pot plants at home, and it allows for retail stores as early as January 1, 2018.

Lee said he fired the manager after the incident, but not the female employee nor the doorman.

“It’s incumbent upon you to talk to your employees. This is a really big deal,” commission chairperson Murati Ferrer said.

Lee is slated to reappear at the commission’s December 7 hearing to received his punishment.