TROY, Mich. (WXYZ) — A dangerous mixup following a youth baseball game sent 4 small kids to the hospital after consuming marijuana edibles.
A family from metro Detroit says what looked like a popular candy to their daughter turned out to be something very different. Now, they’re speaking out to raise awareness.
“The word I think is disturbing.” says father Brandon Reinkensmeyer, who’s 8-year-old daughter ended up at Beaumont Hospital. “There were 4 children who tested positive for THC. 3 of them, including my daughter, were hospitalized,” he adds.
Brandon said someone passed out candy at the recent youth baseball game that his daughter came to watch. The packaging closely resembled “Sour Patch Kids” but was actually called “Stoner Patch Dummies.”
The children, at the time, had no idea what they were eating.
“It looks identical,” says Brandon.
Troy Police are now investigating, and we’ve learned the kids have fully recovered. We called the state’s agency for overseeing marijuana who issued a statement on the incident.
Part of it reads:
Products sold through our licensed and regulated facilities have to follow the dosing rules, and must be clearly marked as THC, and may not be designed in a way that is appealing to kids. This appears to be an illicit market product that fails all of those standards. Compliant, licensed businesses would not make or sell this product in Michigan.
Attorney Matthew Abel who has been an advocate for the cannabis industry says people need to be careful about products they bring home around kids.
He adds, “It's about personal responsibility.”
Also weighing in is Rep. Darrin Camilleri from Brownstown Twp. who says the incident is very troubling.
“The fact that was able to slip through the cracks is scary,” says Camilleri.
We’ve also learned the same type of packaging is available for sale on Amazon from Canada.
Camilleri says, “our state needs to make sure issues like this don’t happen. Every day we are finding out there are other problems we haven’t taken care of.”
For now, it’s still unknown who handed out the grown-up treats that soured parents at the game.
“I would like to think a parent was in their pantry, grabbed a bunch of stuff, and didn’t know what they were doing. We’ve asked and nobody saw anything out of the ordinary,” says Brandon.
If you know anything about what happened at the baseball game, call Troy Police right away.
