Education

CU Boulder students arrested for taking pot brownies to ‘bring food day’ event

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Two students at the University of Colorado Boulder allegedly gave marijuana-laced brownies to their unwitting professor and several unsuspecting classmates on Friday.

Police say the students, Thomas Ricardo Cunningham, 21, and Mary Elizabeth Essa, 19, brought the homemade drug-laced brownies to history class as part of “bring food day,” reports Boulder’s Daily Camera.

Coloradans recently passed Amendment 64, a measure that legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. But the new law didn’t give college students permission to violate whatever policies their universities may have against the drug use on campus.

The first sign that something was amiss in Boulder came at approximately 10:20 a.m. Friday. The professor, still unidentified, reported symptoms of dizziness and a loss of consciousness. Paramedics transported the prof to a hospital.

Later that afternoon, the mother of one of the students in the class reportedly notified CU officials that her daughter was in the hospital after having a panic attack.

On Saturday, the Daily Camera noted that another student told school police she had felt as if she was going to “black out” the day before. That student was also taken to the hospital for further evaluation.

An investigation by CU campus police revealed that the hospitalized professor, the two hospitalized students and at least five additional students in the class were, in fact, experiencing the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana.

CU police reportedly discussed the incident with both Cunningham and Essa. According to the Daily Camera, the two students “confirmed the brownies contained marijuana.”

All three hospitalized individuals have since been released.

Cunningham and Essa , however, now face felony charges including second-degree assault, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault, inducing the consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means and, conspiracy to induce the consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means.

“There could be prison time in this case,” said CU police spokesperson Ryan Huff at news conference Sunday, according to the Daily Camera.

Cunningham and Essa are almost certain to face disciplinary procedures at school as well, which could include suspension or expulsion.

Bronson Hilliard, a spokesperson for the University of Colorado, called the prank “a stupid, irresponsible act,” the Daily Camera reported.

As of Sunday, bond had not been set for Cunningham and Essa. They remain in custody at the Boulder County Jail.

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