A student at a New York middle school gave marijuana gummies to at least a dozen classmates this week, sending nearly all of them to the hospital, police and the school district said.
The 13- and 14-year-old students were sickened Monday morning at William Floyd Middle School in Moriches, New York, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a statement. Eleven of the students were taken to the hospital and one was released into the custody of a parent, James Montalto, a spokesperson for the school district, said in a statement to USA TODAY.
“While we cannot discuss student discipline publicly due to privacy laws, we take this matter seriously and there will be appropriate consequences,” Montalto said. “We will continue to build upon our anti-drug programs and also continue to host grade-level assemblies highlighting the dangers of all drug use including edible marijuana.”
It’s not clear how the student obtained the edibles or whether they knew the gummies contained marijuana before sharing them. But similar incidents have happened in schools across the country and cases of children ingesting marijuana-laced treats have grown as more states have legalized the medical and recreational use of cannabis.
Cases of kids consuming edibles on the rise
The number of children under the age of 6 who accidentally ate products laced cannabis rose from 207 cases in 2017 to 3,014 cases in 2021, according to a 2023 study published in the journal Pediatrics. More than half of the children were toddlers, ages 2 and 3, and the vast majority obtained the edibles at home, the study found.
In California, at least two children were given THC-infused candy packaged like Starburst during a Halloween trick-or-treating event at Earhart Elementary School in October 2023. One of the elementary students was sickened and required medical attention, according to police.
Two months later, an Iowa father was charged with multiple felonies after his 4-year-old son ate a chocolate bar containing THC and had to be treated at a hospital. Three students at a Florida middle school were hospitalized that same month after taking edibles laced with an unknown substance.
Why edibles can be particularly dangerous for kids
Toxicologist and Emergency Medicine physician Dr. David Vearrier at the University of Mississippi Medical Center previously told the USA TODAY Network the side effects of marijuana edibles can be extremely dangerous in young children.
“The most common side effects are mental status depression and sleepiness as well as decreased breathing in some cases,” Vearrier said. “Sometimes acute agitation is a factor as well.”
Edibles made with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, can come in the form of gummies, chocolates, lollipops, drinks, chips, cookies and other baked goods. Because children often don’t realize how potent each piece can be and they are smaller than adults, “a higher milligram/kilogram dose is ingested, which puts children at risk for increased toxicity from these exposures,” the researchers behind the 2023 study said.
A child might also easily mistake many of the products for a regular snack, Marit Tweet, an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist with the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, said in a statement accompanying the study.
The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent cease and desists letters in 2023 to six companies with marijuana products that resembled Doritos, Cheetos, gummy bears, and other candies with nearly identical packaging to the original brands, as they did in the California case. But, the FTC said all it can do is “strongly encourage sellers to review all of their marketing and product packaging.”
Meanwhile some states, including Illinois, require edible packaging to not appeal to children and restrict the total amount of THC allowed per package, Tweet previously told USA TODAY.
Contributing:Emilee Coblentz,Natalie Neysa Alund and Mike Snider, USA TODAY; Joshua Williams, USA TODAY NETWORK
