Officers from the Metropolitan Police seized packets of sweets from a road user in Kingston after discovering they contained the psychoactive compound THC.

The sweet packets, some of which were themed around the popular cartoon programme Rick and Morty, were labelled as containing THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the active psychoactive compound found in most cannabis.

In a post to Twitter on Monday (July 13), officers from Kingston MPS said their colleagues from the Met's Road and Transport team had taken the items into custody and dealt with the road out of court following a Stop and Search.

In a short statement describing the find, a spokesperson for Kingston MPS said:

"@MPSRTPC Safer Transport Team Officers on a Stop and Search....Found this.

"Out of court disposal given.....THC is Illegal."

An image posted with the tweet showed several packets of "rope" sweet purporting to contain THC.

While the Kingston MPS tweet suggested that THC is illegal in all instances, recent changes to UK law mean that it is available in small doses from specialist doctors in the UK, who are legally allowed to prescribe cannabis-derived medicinal products.

That was after a cannabis product called Sativex, which is a 50-50 mix of THC and CBD produced in a lab, was been approved for use in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as a treatment for multiple sclerosis.