(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

ARMSTRONG - Testing if marijuana brownies consumed by a group of high school students in the North Okanagan were possibly laced with another drug may be difficult.

Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy says the Vernon/North Okanagan RCMP continue to investigate the Oct. 12, 2016 case at Pleasant Valley Secondary School in Armstrong, but don’t have much to work with.

“I don’t believe there was anything left,” Noseworthy says of the substance in question. “So, unfortunately, we don’t have anything to test.”

According to the high school, a few students consumed the brownies and suffered ‘severe reactions’ including high heart rate and passing out shortly after. They were checked over by paramedics, and some were taken to hospital by their parents for further examination.

“My understanding is we’re still waiting for results from some of the kids that went to hospital,” Noseworthy says.

In a letter home to parents, the school principal said they strongly believe something was mixed into the marijuana, due to the students’ reactions.

Police have not issued any public warnings about marijuana being laced with other illicit substances, and when asked directly, Noseworthy said she is not aware of any cases in the area involving marijuana specifically. That appears to contradict information supplied to parents by the school. In a letter, the school says it was informed by police that some of the illegal drugs circulating and being mixed with marijuana are crystal meth, ecstasy (MDMA) and fentanyl. That statement has, to our knowledge, never been corroborated.

Noseworthy did say the detachment has come across other types of drugs being laced. 

“Unfortunately we’ve seen cases of things that have been sold here in town that are supposedly heroin and are actually fentanyl,” Noseworthy says.

She has seen marijuana laced with substances before in different detachment areas, but not in the North Okanagan.

No matter what the illicit substance, she says users put themselves at risk any time they buy street drugs.

“It’s the case with any illicit drug that you buy, there’s no structure for making sure things are what they’re supposed to be,” Noseworthy says.

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