Three 7-year-olds were taken to hospitals Monday after they found and ingested drugs that they thought were candy, police in Montgomery County, Maryland, said.
The children, all students at College Gardens Elementary in Rockville, found a container of blue items, briefly ingested them and spit them out, police said.
The children began to feel dizzy and went to the school nurse, who called emergency medical services, police said.
They were taken to hospitals. All three students were released from the hospital and sent home with their families. They are expected to be OK, police said.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
Police said they aren’t sure what the students consumed, but based on toxicology reports, it could have been a stimulant such as the prescription drug Adderall or the illicit substance MDMA.
A mother at the school said she’s worried.
“Are there illegal activities going on on school grounds?” she asked.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Police Chief Marcus Jones said that parents should talk to their children about the danger of ingesting unknown substances.
“I am relieved that the students will ultimately be fine, but in many ways, what happened today is frightening,” Jones said in a statement.
Police are continuing to investigate.
It’s not the first time local students have ingested controlled substances.
Five children ate drug-laced edibles at their elementary school in Northwest D.C. earlier this month and were taken to a hospital for monitoring, a principal said.
News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.
The number of children who accidentally ate marijuana-laced edibles rose sharply over five years as marijuana became legal in more places, according to a study published earlier this year. In nearly a quarter of reported cases, children wound up hospitalized, an analysis in the journal Pediatrics found.
In 2017, there were 207 cases of children in the U.S. poisoned by cannabis edibles, according to the National Poison Data System. In 2021, there were 3,054 cases.
