E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSTwo Colorado University students are facing multiple felony charges after campus police say they fed marijuana-laced brownies to their unsuspecting classmates and professor. KUSA's Nick McGurk reports.
Two University of Colorado students have been arrested for allegedly feeding marijuana-laced brownies to their unsuspecting classmates and professor, police said.
Thomas Ricardo Cunningham, 21, and Mary Elizabeth Essa, 19, baked the pot-laced brownies for the class as part of a "bring food day," the University of Colorado Police Department said in a news release on Sunday. The professor and classmates were unaware that the brownies contained tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, police said.
On Friday morning, officers were called to the Hellems Arts and Sciences Building on the Boulder campus on a report of a professor who was complaining of dizziness and going in and out of consciousness.Paramedics transported her to a hospital.
Later that afternoon, a student's mother notified campus police that her daughter, who had been in the professor's class, was having an anxiety attack and was at a hospital. On Saturday, a second student told police that she felt like she was going to "black out" after the class. Her family took her to the hospital for evaluation.
An investigation revealed that the three hospitalized victims - and five other classmates - were suffering from the effects of marijuana, police said. The three hospitalized victims have since been released.
Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com
Cunningham and Essa were interviewed by police on Saturday evening and admitted that the brownies contained marijuana, police said.
They were arrested on suspicion of four felonies: second-degree assault, inducing consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit inducing consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Storm pounds Upper Midwest with heavy snow, wind
- 3 dead, 4 hurt in Central California shooting, chase
- Breezy Point residents meet for first time since Sandy destruction
- US Supreme Court to take up same-sex marriage issue
- Advocates on both sides hope for Supreme Court clarity on same-sex marriage
- Video: Officers suspect high speed, alcohol in deadly NFL crash
Leave a Comment:
Many of us are subject to random drug tests and if I fail one because some idiot put MJ in something I injested I would be in deep $@#& when the results came back. Through no fault of me own I could be subject to severe discipline for someones prank. If you want to smoke the stuff that is your business but I choose to abstain.
That's a good point. But in this case, since the victims are aware of what happened, they would probably not be subject to a legal termination due to a positive drug test, at least for 90 days or so.
But that depends on State law. In a "at will" State, they don't need a legal reason to fire a person and one could be fired for a positive test no matter what the circumstances are.
But you are right, the implications for the victims are serious due to the behavior of these students and others who would try to pull a prank like that.
lol
Being not an experienced marijuana user, I suppose that the experience "suffered" by the professor/students would have been rather disconcerting considering they had no idea why they were experiencing the effects - and attempting to describe them would have led to rather grandiose descriptions. My understanding is that no-one's ever died of marijuana, and that the high is not related to the amount, but to the quality and chemical composition of the marijuana. In other words, you'll never get higher and higher the more you smoke - there's a plateau that one supposedly reaches when a sufficient amount of THC has entered the bloodstream. Unlike cocaine, where one just goes up and up until, well, they die of it.
The students blew it. They're done with life. Too bad. They should hang themselves. Or prepare to enjoy life as a poor (or illegally rich) felon while they reminisce about what could have been.
A lot of what you say is true but consuming pot orally has a much greater affect than smoking it. I did it once as a kid and would never do that again. All the symptoms described in the article coincide with what I experienced except that I had the advantage of knowing it was the pot and was never in a panic.
This sounds like the plot for the movie "High School" 2010 with Adrien Brody
But you must remember, they ended up blaming it on the principle in the end and he went to prison. But yes, I have to wonder if life didn't imitate art here.
Oh heavens! Marijuana brownies and the incredible "suffering" they cause! Give me a break. Many people these days have a flair for the dramatic, and are convinced they are dying even if they just have a runny nose.
Oh...so it is ok to poison someone with a psychoactive drug without their knowlege or consent.
So...is it ok to use a "date-rape" drug on a woman? I mean, honestly, the drug supposedly does not harm her permanently....
Oh...I see, it's "only marijuana"...the rights of the students and professor NOT to be tricked into injesting a psychoactive drug doesn't measure into your thinking...
I live in Texas, and am a independent. Have many republican Friends here. But Conservative Republicans here should be referred to as The Texas Taliban, which is to say "view the world my way, or hit the highway"!
Says you.
"Our way is the best way!" says the man in the Magic Underwear.
magic underwear...hahahahahahahahahahaha...now that is funny...I am sure it is quite logical to put on your protective supersuit to wear under your clothes to keep you safe. Maybe the mormons have been hitting the wonder weed from way back!
@texanmoron - is that why your population is a bunch a pedophiles taking in children on ranches!!
Why Yes, When they come one and say stupid crap like you, what else am I to believe?
These two kids were related to TEXASMORON!
What are you, a person that can't look at logic and facts!!! And I stop counting my age, trying to stay as young as possible... Maybe you should try it!
Aren't trolls fun?
chris
Please stop feeding the troll. The parents probably want their basement back now.
Oh ya and mormons believe a leprachaun led some guy to a pot of gold so he makes a "religion" out of it.
A legend in your own mind!
The effects of cannabis are much, much more different when you eat it compared to if you smoke it. If you've never been under the influence of cannabis before and the first time is when you've eaten it... it can be jarring. It could be scary. It's waaaaay easier to overdo it when eating it compared to when smoking it, too. Smoking it gives you the effects immediate. You can titrate your usage. Eating it takes about 45 minutes for it to digest and get into your blood stream. In that time you can have put away 3 or more brownies when it only takes half a brownie to get the effects.
I'm 100% for legalization. Cannabis is practically benign when used properly by someone who intends to use it. What these kids did was reckless. They deserve what they have coming to them.
I wouldn't be surprised if these two idiots were the kids of alcoholics!!
How did these two ever get in college? Talk about your all time stupid moves. Not only did they do something illegal but they pissed off a movement for legalization and pissed off those that don't want it legal.
Two of the most hated people on the planet right about now.
Good going dumb asses.
Don't bogart that brownie my friend pass it over to me!
I tried a pot brownie once, but I couldn'r keep it lit...
Holy Modal Rounders, Batman!
It's cases such as these that will have the Federal Government knocking on the door to Colorado and Washington in short order. Perhaps the anti-marijuana zealots had something to do with this and put them up to it...Hmm. Stranger things have happened.
I absolutely think these two are idiots ; you do not give someone any kind of drug or medication with out their knowledge. But this stuff about complaining of dizziness and going in and out of consciousness what nonsense. Some of these people didn't know they were just stoned.......lol
Did those ignorant, stupid kids even consider that if someone was allergic to that pot that it could have killed them?
There as so many kids with so many different allergies to do something without knowing who could die, these kids need to serve some serious jail time.
I agree with jailtime. And they're not kids anymore. Consider this. They're on campus, studying some
subject, maybe your doctor, or peace officer, IRS agent, security, oh gawd your dentist. Gives you a nice
warm feeling in your tummy, huh?
Nail Ricardo and Essa bigtime. Feed them brownies while away.
Steven100 Please send me the link to pot allergen studies this is scary stuff just to think of all those people pot has killed
So how did the people eating these brownies not know they were laced? I have eaten pot brownies once and I could immediately identify the marijuana flavor, hell you could smell it.
These two idiots should be made to pay each persons hospital bill. I wouldn't be surprised if people stopped doing the bring your food to school/work days because of morons like this.
Why should they pay the hospital bill of a retard who goes to the hospital just because they're feeling a little woozy?
Whatever their reason for going to the hospital, they wouldn't have gone if these two idiots hadn't drugged them. So yeah, they should pay.
and these are the type of retards that want pot legal .
The article makes it look like the teacher was on her death bed saying "she was going in and out of consciousness." I think "fighting off sleep" would have been a more accurate description. Eating a large dose of cannabis edibles does make you sleepy, especially if you're a newb.
DUH!! Brownies!! The all time favorite for DECADES!!! Want to buy a clue?
naïve much?
My bad...I didn't know this was a discussion for 12 yr olds.
Yeah... Guys who say "my bad" as part of their everyday lexicon must be about 12 years old...
Its humor. Grow up!
Yeah... Guys who say "my bad" as part of their everyday lexicon must be about 12 years old...
Its humor. Grow up
HAAA! Way to prove my point, troll.
@Sebuttpan...
You don't know when to quit do you? Name calling is a sign of weakness and inability to hold intelligent dialogue much less a simple discussion.
Please just go away... Here's good advice. Don't show up at a gun fight without ammunition.
Oh you're killing me.
hey genius,
you're the one with the childish joke about Brownies and then call me naive. Then you criticize my language. and then you claim: it's humor(yeah, if your 12) and so, i call you a troll bcz you're insulting and acting like one. I asked a simple question responding to TM's quote. And, I'll say it again: what does marijuana or anything in this article have to do with being gay?
Nothing. and yet, you call me naive and unable to hold intelligent dialogue?
Whatever, gunslinger
YOU replied to MY post... Its on you! I'm done with your stupid diatribe. Go smoke another one... or have another beer.
@32...
Some people just can't keep track of their sh*t. Relax...
Does anyone else see that the same people who want pot legalized want to ban cigarettes? Wierd!
I find it even stranger that the people that DON"T want pot legalized are often the drinkers. Many of the opponents of legalization are our elected alcoholic legislators. After all, booze greases the wheels of government. And by the way, the word is spelled "weird", not "wierd". Now go have a drink and learn to spell.
More reason college should not be for everyone. You can't educate away stupidity. They're born with it.
True but what would they be like with hammers and nails or 250,000 volt power lines?
More like a keyboard and phone line. Or a nailed down cash register at a 7-11
Stupid kids just ruined their lives. What were they thinking... Oh well, they can be an example.
I doubt their lives are "ruined". The stupidest thing they did was not putting the brownies on an unidentifiable plate and pleading ignorance, saying if asked that they had no idea who brought the brownies. Though I agree this was a dumb thing to do, I doubt that anyone was seriously damage by it.
Oh, a few felonies each will ruin their lives. And don't assume the victims weren't seriously damaged.
Another prank gone awry. I hope they are charged with a criminal action. It is beyond me how what some people consider funny. What will the say to the students?... oh sorry just a joke.
Get ready Washington state, with the legalization of marijuana, you too could have a similar news story in the near future.
These two are guilty of being idiots. They could have been idiots with anything. They could have spiked the punch. They could have gased the class with a stinky mix of chems. They could have done a hundred things. The responsibility for this is with them.