Victoria police are facing questions about why the public was kept in the dark for nearly 24 hours about a bag of marijuana gummies handed out to a young trick-or-treater on Halloween.

Officers were called to a home in the 100-block of Simcoe Street Tuesday night after a child's parents found a package of "Twisted Extracts Black Cherry Zzz Bomb" cannabis-infused gummies in their Halloween candy.

Investigators said occupants in the home seemed to be unaware they handed the candies out to children.

They said it did not appear to have been done maliciously because the person has limited vision and was "deeply apologetic" about the incident when officers spoke with them the next day.

While the pot-laced gummies were reported to police Tuesday night, the department didn't notify the public until early Wednesday night.

In the alert, they asked parents to check their kids' Halloween candy for anything suspicious.

Parents in the James Bay neighbourhood told CTV News they were concerned they weren't notified about the potential hazard sooner.

"I don't know why they couldn't have done that sooner," said Chau Nguyen, whose family lives in the block. "If anything it should have been released to the public that night, because a lot of kids go home and they go through all their candy that night."

The police media department has admitted it wasn't aware of the file until after 4 p.m. Wednesday, and says things could have been handled better.

"This should have happened faster and it should have been done better, and we're going to make the changes that we need to make to make sure that it does happen faster and better," said police spokesman Bowen Osoko. "Frankly, that's too long and it's not a good enough response."

Police chief Del Manak spoke about the incident and response on CFAX 1070 Thursday, saying his department followed protocol but will review what happened.

"I think we did things by the book, but I would say that our job is always to notify the public at the first, earliest, immediate opportunity where we think people could be at risk," Manak told Mark Brennae.

Police are still asking parents to check their kids' Halloween candy for anything suspicious, but say this appears to be an isolated incident.