Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
On Sunday, March 31, Palisadian Dr. Robert Faguet and wife Kay Faguet purchased a pear tart from a vendor at the Pacific Palisades Farmers Market.
The couple explained that they shared parts of the pastry with their adult son and daughter, as well as their adult daughter-in-law who is currently breastfeeding.
An hour later, Kay reported that all five began to feel inebriated.
“I wanted to put the word out to the community that our family was literally poisoned by a pastry at the farmers market,” Robert told the Palisadian-Post. “Someone had laced it with a high-potency marijuana.”
Kay explained that she purchased the pastry from a male vendor.
“It was a pear tart he said was gluten free,” Kay told the Post. “I paid for it, it tasted great. I said, ‘I’ve got to buy this for my daughter-in-law because she only eats gluten-free.’”
Kay shared that she returned home that afternoon and gave pieces to her husband, her son and herself.
“My daughter-in-law ate the rest of it,” she added. “[Robert] afterward said to me, ‘I feel stoned.’”
Kay’s son called her a half hour later and said he and his wife were also “having weird feelings like they were stoned.”
“Then I put it together, because the pastry was the only thing that we ate,” Kay said. “My daughter-in-law ate the most of it. She was breastfeeding, so we’re all really upset.”
Kay expressed concern about what would have happened if an elderly patron had eaten the pastry and driven off, or if a mother had given some to her child.
“I feel kind of weird saying this because I have no proof,” Kay added. “I don’t have any pieces that could be analyzed. I don’t want to accuse the vendor, I just want to warn the community about what happened.”
A friend of the Faguet family contacted California Certified Farmers Markets’ Director of Coordination Melissa Farwell, who oversees the Palisades market. Farwell consulted the Health Department about how to proceed after receiving the information.
“We were very surprised by what [the family] said,” Farwell told the Post. “We have a very strict policy against cannabis. None of our vendors offer it or are approved to offer it. I contacted the Health Department to determine next steps.”
The vendor, whose name is being withheld until more information can be gathered, also denies ever working with cannabis or THC in any form.
“He has never worked with THC or anything like that,” Farwell explained. “He adamantly denies it and says he’s never even worked with it before. He has a bakery kitchen, so it’s a Health Department commissary. He adamantly denies it and says there’s no way.”
