North Ogden 5th graders felt ill after student shared THC gummies, police say

NORTH OGDEN, Utah (ABC4) — Elementary school students in North Ogden reportedly felt ill after eating edible THC gummies a student allegedly brought from home earlier this year, according to the North Ogden Police Department.

Det. Dezmond Perkins said an 11-year-old student at Green Acres Elementary School brought a bag of THC-infused gummy worms from home in March, believing they were candy. The student shared the gummy worms with four other children during recess. Perkins said each student ate between one to three gummy worms.

One student reportedly told their parents what had happened, and the parent in turn alerted school staff. A Weber School District spokesperson told ABC4.com that once the issue was brought to their attention, the school immediately got the nurse involved and coordinated treatment with poison control.

One parent told ABC4.com the students began wobbling, having slurred speech, and throwing up. However, both the North Ogden Police Department and the Weber School District could not confirm those symptoms. The North Ogden Police Department said the students felt ill while the school district said the students suffered only light-headed-like symptoms.

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“Due to student privacy laws, [we] can’t provide specific details about each student, but we are not aware of any students being taken to the hospital and having their stomach pumped,” said the Weber School District in a statement, “With that being said, parents may have sought private medical care after checking their child from school, but we were not made aware of any serious concerns.”

Perkins said one child was checked out by a doctor and was told “to sleep off the effects.”

Cannabis products are legal in Utah for medicinal purposes only and users are required to have a prescribed medical card. Under Utah state law, marijuana products are required to be “clearly and unambiguously” labeled as a cannabis product.

The packaging can not appeal to children or mimic a candy container and must be in a tamper-resistant package. The labels must also include warnings clearing stating to keep out of reach children and that the product could have intoxicating or addictive effects.

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According to the Poison Control Center, there are no federal regulations relating to packaging since cannabis is still illegal on the federal level. This could lead to product labels being inaccurate or confusing.

In most cases, children who eat a cannabis-infused edible could experience dizziness, drowsiness, confusion, breathing difficulties, a rapid heart rate, and/or vomiting. In more severe cases, they could have hallucinations, an abnormally slow heart rate, and low blood pressure. These symptoms could last for hours and with more severe symptoms could require hospitalization.

Since the incident, the Weber School District said it sent out a message to parents with a reminder to secure all medications in their homes to help prevent anything like this from happening again.

Detective Perkins told ABC4.com the Department of Child and Family Services was contacted and a case was opened against the parent of the child who brought the edibles. The North Ogden Police Department also has a case open and charges against the parent are being screened by the prosecuting attorney.

One parent issued the following statement to ABC4.com:

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