The Food and Drug Administration is warning that a chocolate bar laced with mushrooms is causing a bevy of serious health problems with users.
Diamond Shruumz-brand Microdosing Chocolate Bars are designed for consumers to engage with mushrooms in tiny increments.
However, multiple people nationwide who ate the chocolate — the brand’s website calls them “a subtle, sumptuous experience and a more creative state of mind” — experienced seizures, depression, vomiting and “abnormal heart rates.”
Others reportedly passed out after taking the $25 bars along with becoming confused or agitated, according to the FDA.
So far, there have been eight cases reported: four in Arizona, two in Indiana, one in Nevada and another in Pennsylvania.
Of the confirmed cases, six people have been hospitalized.
“Consumers should not eat, sell, or serve any flavor of Diamond Shruumz-brand Microdosing Chocolate Bars, and should discard them,” the FDA warned consumers while also instructing retailers “not to sell or distribute” the product and to instead hold it “in a secure location until additional instructions can be provided on how to return or safely dispose of the product.”
The government agency also warned that the full list of retailers selling the brand “is currently unknown,” but it is specifically marketed as candy to young people.
The item commonly appears online and in smoke and vape shops alongside “diet weed” called delta-8 THC.
“FDA is working to determine the cause of these illnesses and is considering the appropriate next steps,” the agency said.
