A school in New Mexico is asking parents to be more vigilant with the snacks they give their kids after a student accidentally brought drug-laced candy to class.
Albuquerque School of Excellence posted a warning on Facebook for parents last week.
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“We would like our community to be alert with drugs and any edibles that may or could be in different formats,” the post read.
The fifth-grade student brought gummy candy laced with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to school. The candy was meant to be used as medical marijuana by the parents, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
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The box labelled “Incredibles: High-equality handcrafted infused edibles,” was eaten by five students, the Journal reported. Some students felt sick, dizzy and began to giggle.
Kristi Del Curto, the dean of the elementary students, told the newspaper that the children were taken to the school nurse, who thought they had food poisoning. But then they found the box of gummies.
Paramedics were called to do check-ups on the students, who were later sent home with their parents.
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The nine-year-old student who handed out the candy and who has not been identified told KRQE News 13 that she was upset by the situation, and knows not to take drugs.
“All those lessons I took about not taking drugs were all for nothing,” she said.
Medical marijuana has been legal in New Mexico since 2007, The Washington Post reports. But recreational marijuana is still illegal in the state.
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Concerns over edible marijuana have been raised several times in the recent past, especially the risk of children unknowingly ingesting the drug.
Last Halloween, police across Canada issued warnings prior to the holiday urging parents to carefully inspect the candy children receive.
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About a week later, Victoria police announced that marijuana gummies by the name of “Black Cherry ZZZ Bomb,” were found in one child’s Halloween candy.
Edible marijuana in Canada
Edible marijuana, which also comes in several other forms such as peanut butter and tea, won’t be available in Canada for about a year after recreational legalization.
The regulations around edibles are more complex, and Liberals have said they need more time to hone out the details.
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But once available, the Canadian market for edible cannabis products may be quite large.
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Three Canadians in ten in a September 2017 Ipsos poll said they are interested in trying edibles, not many fewer than the number who said they wanted to try smokeable pot. As a share of the adult population, that works out to 8.7 million people.
Edibles appealed more to non-smokers, women, and millennials, the poll found.
— With files from Global News reporter Patrick Cain
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