Six students at an elementary school on Detroit’s east side were hospitalized Tuesday after eating what officials believe were marijuana edibles.
The students, who attend Edison Elementary School on Grand River, will be OK, said Chrystal Wilson, a spokesperson for Detroit Public Schools Community District.
However, district officials are renewing their plea calling on state and local officials to make policy changes that will help keep marijuana out of children’s hands.
DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti previously said the district deals with hundreds of drug-related incidents each year, often involving marijuana edibles.
“The consumption of edibles by youth has been an ongoing and increasing challenge since legalization and one that Superintendent Vitti has called for greater restriction of sales statewide and especially in the City, along with an increase in ad campaigns in the City explaining the health risk associated with youth consumption of marijuana edibles,” Wilson said in an email.
The district also is urging parents to do their part.
“We continue to remind all families to secure their edibles and to have conversations with their children about not consuming any food or candy they do not purchase themselves or obtain from home,” Wilson said.
Michigan voters legalized recreational use of marijuana among adults age 21 and older in passing a 2018 ballot initiative. Sales began in December 2019. Since then, several incidents have been reported at area schools.
In February 2023, students at a Warren middle school were sickened after a classmate distributed cookies and gummies containing THC, the chemical in marijuana that produces a high.
The mother of a Livonia charter school student called for change when her fifth-grade child was hospitalized after a classmate gave him a marijuana edible in May 2022.
Earlier that same month, a Genesee County mom was charged with second-degree child abuse after her son brought THC-infused gummies to Edgerton Elementary School, near Clio, sickening four kindergarteners.
mreinhart@detroitnews.com