Fifth-Grade Teacher Facing Charges After Supplying A Student With Cannabis & Alcohol For Years

A fifth-grade teacher in a New Jersey elementary school has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, the state's prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday.

Jennifer Debiec of Mercerville Elementary School in Hamilton, NJ is accused of supplying a 13-year-old student with vodka, vape pens and THC drops for over a period of two years, reported NJ.com.

The boy's mother learned that the teacher had been giving the items to her son after seizing his cell phone as a punishment and reading the text messages, according to the language of the affidavit of probable cause supporting the charges.

Investigators took a videotaped statement from the boy as well, the document continues.

Edible Marijuana Dangers

Separately, three teenage girls supposedly overdosed on cannabis edibles at a school in the Chicago neighborhood of Rogers Park, reported ABC7 Chicago.

The girls, all 13, were in good condition after being taken to St. Francis Hospital, the police said on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, ten Los Angeles students appear to have overdosed on cannabis edibles at Van Nuys Middle School in San Fernando Valley, reported Associated Press.

The Los Angeles Fire Department stated that students aged between 12 and 15 suffered mild to moderate distress.

Meanwhile, Dr. Varun Vorah, director of the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center, recently warned of an alarming trend of increased pediatric exposures to cannabis and abuse of edibles and vapes, reported WXYZ.

"They [edibles] can look like candy, they can often taste like candy. They're infused in different snack foods," Vorah said.

A Dramatic Increase In Teen Cannabis Abuse

Sadly, the latest cases of cannabis poisonings among children seem to align with recent findings published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, which revealed a 245% rise in pediatric abuse and misuse of cannabis from 2000 to 2020.

Adrienne Hughes, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine recently said the increase in marijuana use in children is on the rise because the effect of edibles takes longer to become apparent.

"Compared to smoking cannabis, which typically results in an immediate high, intoxication from edible forms of marijuana usually takes several hours, which may lead some individuals to consume greater amounts and experience unexpected and unpredictable highs," Hughes said.

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