Don’t laugh: School kids were tricked into eating marijuana treats

A New Jersey 101.5 article this week cautioning parents about marijuana edibles possibly ending up in their kids' Halloween hauls got barrels of laughs from wags on Facebook.

"This is hilarious. Whoever wants to 'give away' free edibles, I'll come take them off your hands," reader Kristen said on our page.

"It's true!!" added Andrew. "A prince in Africa is doing it but he needs you to send him $5,000 and he'll send you $10,000 in edibles back."

"NO ONE IS GIVING EDIBLES AWAY FOR FREE!!" Teri advised. "It’s a hilariously ignorant thing to even suggest. They’re expensive to buy and tedious to make.

Even our own Dennis Malloy chimed in: "The chances of someone giving the stuff away to random kids is like me filling little bottles of Johnny Walker Blue to give to kids when they come to my door. It ain't gonna happen."

But as readers were yucking it up in New Jersey, across the river in Philadelphia, a classroom of elementary school students got stoned after eating a batch of homemade cereal bars laced with marijuana. One even hallucinated.

At least five students were hospitalized and two tested positive for marijuana. They'll live.

But Philadelphia police said they may charge a 13-year-old student with reckless endangerment and possession of marijuana.

New Jersey 101.5's story was not an attempt to stoke "reefer madness" fears. It was a warning from New Jersey Poison Control Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

As Managing Director Bruce Ruck told reporter Jen Ursillo, edibles are increasingly popular and children may inadvertently get their hands on the treats, which look just like any other baked good, chocolate bar or hard candy.

It's not that skeevy drug dealers from those old "Just Say No" commercials are trying to foist the edibles onto your kids. It's that adults could get careless and allow children to eat them by mistake.

If you think a child may have accidentally ingested a drug-laced food, don't panic — call the New Jersey Poison Control Helpline at 1-800-222-1222 and they'll help you.

Sergio Bichao is deputy digital editor at New Jersey 101.5. Send him news tips: Call 609-359-5348 or email sergio.bichao@townsquaremedia.com.