DELTONA, Fla. — Parents told WFTV four students were caught high at Pine Ridge High School in Deltona after smoking synthetic marijuana. But WFTV found out that's not what got them in trouble.
The teens were suspended for another, more common drug; they were caught with Mucinex DM cough medicine and all Central Florida schools ban bringing over-the-counter meds on campus.
One of the student's guardians said the district should be more concerned about the synthetic marijuana the students smoked right after they took the cough medicine.
One woman doesn't want to be identified, but she showed WFTV the paperwork she got when she was called to pick up her sick niece at Pine Ridge High in Deltona on Monday. Administrators said her niece and three other students were so high they couldn't function in class.
"She's making no sense, flipping around her hands, chewing her lips, punching her jaw, pinching her fingers," the woman described.
School leaders said they found out all the students, who are in 9th, 10th and 11th grades, had taken several Mucinex DM pills; the over-the-counter cough medicine is not normally dangerous. But the aunt said emergency room doctors found it had been mixed with K2, a synthetic form of marijuana that's perfectly legal and mostly sold online and at gas stations.
"Her heart rate kept jumping," the woman described.
District leaders told WFTV they never found the K2, but did find the Mucinex, and that's why the four students, three girls and one boy, were suspended.
DEA officials told WFTV the fake marijuana is becoming more popular among teenagers and college students because its legal, odorless, cheap and it doesn't show up in drug tests. There's no pending legislation now to ban it in Florida.
"Apparently, the affects can last a couple of days before it's even out of her system," the woman said.
The drug is undetectable, but according to the guardian for one of the students her niece admitted they were smoking K2 and the emergency room doctors said her symptoms were consistent with someone who had smoked it.
K2 is synthetic marijuana, which can be ten times more powerful than the real drug. It contains synthetic THC, the active ingredient in pot. It's sprayed on herbs, which are sold in small packets.
Doctors say the drug has triggered seizures and hallucinations in some patients, but it's so new doctors don't know the long-term effects.
WFTV
