Café’s cannabis brownies put mum and kids, 3 and 5, in hospital with hallucinations

A family has spoken of their horror after they unknowingly ate brownies laced with cannabis at a café.

Sharon Hoysted and her children Emily and Tom, aged three and five, “completely freaked out” and had to go to hospital after realising they had ingested the cannabis.

In the car on the way home, Sharon had noticed Tom was “very tired” and Emily was “very relaxed”.

But not long after they got back to their Perth house, Emily let out a “blood-curdling” scream before her dad, Michael Maxwell, rushed the whole family to hospital as they were having trouble seeing normally.

Sharon told WA today : “I panicked. Michael doesn’t often say we need to go to hospital or the doctor, especially for the kids, so when he said that I was really concerned.”

When she got to the Children’s Hospital, she began to feel paranoid and “not normal” before she was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

She said: “I honestly thought I was going mad” and “completely freaked out” when she saw a mannequin in the building.

The mum then thought four security guards were about to take her to a psychiatric ward.

Michael Maxwell went back the next day to buy another brownie and freeze it for testing.

The Bada Bing café owner Nathan Sharp, 43, accidentally served the dangerous dessert after his cannabis butter got mixed up.

He pleaded not guilty, claiming he had made the wacky brownies once at home but took them to Rottnest Island and threw them away.

A magistrate didn’t believe him and Mr Sharp was found guilty of two counts of selling food that was unsuitable under the Food Act and fined $15,000.

Prosecutor Peter Gillett said the family had been heavily impacted, although admitted the offending was isolated and “stupid”.

“It really was a case of perhaps Mr Sharp making a poor decision,” he said.