2 students sent to hospital after eating pot-laced cookies at Oshawa school
CBC News | Posted: December 6, 2018 9:47 PM | Last Updated: December 6, 2018
Cookies stolen from parent who had medical cannabis licence, police say
Police are warning parents and children about the dangers of under-age cannabis consumption after two students became ill from eating pot-laced cookies.
The seniors at Hillsdale Public School in Oshawa were taken to a local hospital by ambulance after they ate the cookies at school on Wednesday, according to a news release from Durham Regional Police.
"One of the students snuck several cookies into school and had ingested them with a friend," the release said.
The child had taken part of a batch of cookies made by a parent who has a medical cannabis licence, police say.
Calls to Ontario Poison Centre for under-19 cannabis exposure up
According to the Ontario Poison Centre, cannabis exposure for children is on the rise.
From 2013 to 2017, calls to the centre for cannabis exposure for children and youth under 19 increased from 116 to 234. From the beginning of 2018 to Aug. 15, the centre took 211 of those calls.
"Cannabis cookies or brownies may look very appetizing and they may taste delicious," James Mackillop, the director of the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research and the DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research, told CBC Toronto in October.
"But they may effectively be poisonous and can result in a really unpleasant set of symptoms that may not be life threatening but can still result in a child having to go to the ER department."
The two Oshawa students were kept in hospital overnight for observation.
The release from Durham police says since Wednesday's incident officers have "taken the time to educate students, parents, caregivers and teachers about the dangers and risks of consuming psychoactive chemicals at such an early age."
The investigation has also called in the Children's Aid Society to conduct a review of the incident.