A cannabis product could be to blame for more than six people being hospitalised with symptoms including seizure-like twitching, vomiting and hallucinations after consuming gummies marketed as containing mushrooms, according to experts.
The cordyceps and lion’s mane flavours of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies were recalled this week by Food Standards Australia New Zealand after reports of hospitalisations in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.
Uncle Frog company director Rohan Bandil refused to reveal what was in the gummies that were sold online and pushed on Instagram until earlier this week. He said there were “many other brands selling similar products”.
Uncle Frog’s website – which has now been taken down – stated that the gummies were “free from CBD, CBN, and THC, and are 100% legal in Australia”. The packaging encouraged customers to “experience the multiverse”, claiming they were “infused with Earth’s finest hemp”.
According to NSW Health documents, the product packaging lists “non-psychoactive mushrooms … and hemp-derived extract” in the gummies, as well as HHC and cannabidiol (CBD) on some packaging.
HHC is hexahydrocannabinol and THC is tetrahydrocannabinol. Both are psychoactive cannabinoids derived from the cannabis plant.
According to NSW Health, patients experienced “unexpected toxicity” and “disturbing hallucinations” when consuming the gummies, but experts say the mushrooms are unlikely to be the cause of the issues.
Dr Ian Musgrave, a lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, said neither lion’s mane nor cordyceps fungi are associated with the side-effects being reported.
Dr Jack Wilson, a University of Sydney postdoctoral researcher, said it was hard to say what was in the gummies without proper testing, but he guessed the effects had something to do with hemp or an unlisted harmful fungi.
“The main point here is that these unregulated products make it difficult to know what psychoactive ingredients were included,” he said.
Messages seen by the Guardian that appeared to have been sent by the Uncle Frog Instagram account to prospective customers show the account spruiking the gummies as containing “hemp-derived HHC, which may have strong psychoactive effects”.
“Out of 100 customers, 100 of them have reported the effects,” one message read. “HHC has effects similar to THC and psilocybin at the same time.”
Psilocybin is a psychedelic compound found in some fungi species.
Others who claimed to have consumed the products shared their experiences on Reddit this week . One said they had expected a “little bit of a mellow” but instead “unexpectedly tripped and it was hectic”.
Another said they were struggling to move and were “nauseous as hell” after consuming what they thought was “just normal lion’s mane supplements but got spiked”.
“All I could really do was just lie in my bed next to a spew bucket and wait,” they said.
The RMIT chemistry professor Oliver Jones said the ingredients listed on the packet were “not associated with the symptoms reported”.
“We can’t technically fully rule out either synthetic cannabinoids or natural cannabinoids without further testing,” he said.
“Neither of the fungi listed on the packet are associated with the side effects reported in the media reports but it is possible the fungi in the product are not the ones listed.”
Prof Jon Wardle, the foundation director of the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine at Southern Cross University, suspected there had been some “adulteration, substitution or contamination” of the gummies.
“The products claimed ‘broad spectrum hemp’ which means a whole plant extract which could potentially contain higher levels of cannabinoids such as THC than listed,” he said.
Tim Powell from the drug harm reduction program DanceWize NSW said there had been a sharp increase in the number of gummy sellers using Instagram to find customers over the past few years.
He said consumers faced the same issue with these gummies as they do with more typical recreational drugs and warned against purchasing products like these online.
“The theory with this is it appears to be a sort of cannabinoid rather than being any actual mushroom effect,” he said.
“Without every single product of this type going to be comprehensively tested, you’re never really sure what’s going to be in them.”
Uncle Frog was contacted for comment.
