LAVEEN VILLAGE, AZ — Five students were evaluated at Country Gardens Charter School in Laveen Village after ingesting THC Thursday afternoon.
According to MCSO, the group of five kids, ages 11 to 13, suffered from various degrees of illness after consuming edible THC gummies.
One student, a 12-year-old girl, has been taken to the hospital as a precaution.
Phoenix fire officials say the other four students have been picked up by their parents.
The 12-year-old student that was hospitalized is believed to be the one that supplied the gummies to the other students.
MCSO and school administrators continue to investigate this incident.
Maureen Roland, RN has practically seen it all after working 10 years at the Banner Poison Control Center.
"That's a can of worms. Pretty much everything and anything you can think of,” said Roland.
She estimates 50,000 people called the center for help last year and about 20,000 of those calls, she says, dealt with drug overdoses.
"That's one of the sad things we have been seeing, particularly, over the last couple of years,” added Roland.
Banner Health took more than 60 calls, last year, to help kids between the ages of 6 and 12 who had eaten marijuana edibles.
That's an increase for the third year in a row.
As for Thursday, deputies say the students of Country Gardens Charter School in Laveen who ingested the THC gummies ranged in age from 11 to 13.
"It's unfortunate. We have seen this before though, so this is not the first time and I don't know the particulars of this case,” added Roland.
Nurse Roland suggests parents keep an eye out for what's on store shelves.
"Some of these products that we are seeing sold just in the corner store or whatnot, are not well-regulated and we don't know exactly what's in them,” added Roland.
The best rule of thumb to help keep children safe, the nurse says, is to keep all drugs out of reach of children. But, the nurse has a few other precautions to share.
"You should always know how much you have. Keep an inventory so you will know if any of it is missing. But, again, just making sure you're talking to your kids about it,” added Roland.
As for the charter school students, who ingested the gummies, firefighters believe all of them will be okay.
ABC15 did not receive a response from the school as deputies investigate what happened.
