Best excuse ever for ingesting pot: it was the mysterious sidewalk salesman working for a "church fundraiser" who sold me the magic brownies. Also the most interesting issue of CDC's MMWR ever.
A few months ago, a pre-school teacher, with best intentions of supporting a local parish, bought some brownies from a sidewalk vendor who was holding a bake sale fundraiser for the church. I'll let MMWR set up the rest of the story:
On the morning of April 7, 2009, a preschool teacher put brownies, which she had purchased on April 5, on a table in a break room to share with staff. The day before, she also had given two brownies to her adult son at home. Five preschool teachers (not including the teacher who had purchased the brownies) and the teacher's adult son were the only persons who ate the brownies. Each person ate only one brownie. At approximately 1:30 p.m., the preschool director and the administrator noticed that one of the teachers suddenly looked drowsy and was complaining of drowsiness, ataxia, dizziness, shortness of breath, and numbness and tingling of the face, forehead, arms, and hands. When the director and administrator learned that the teacher who had shared the brownies had purchased them from a sidewalk vendor for a church fundraiser, they suspected the affected teacher's drowsiness was associated with her ingestion of the brownie 30 minutes before onset of symptoms. The teacher did not seek medical care.The church had not held a fundraiser?? Uh oh. The first clue that something was amiss is that "several affected persons reported that the brownies had a medicine-like aftertaste or smell; however, all six affected persons ate an entire brownie. One teacher (who did not report symptoms and was not included in the analysis) reported biting a brownie but immediately spitting it out, complaining of an unusual taste." Perhaps more of the teachers should have used logic and spit it out, given that the brownies were baked by a stranger.
The brownies were sold as single, unlabeled units, individually wrapped in plastic wrap, costing $1.50 each. The preschool director contacted the head pastor of the church, who reported that the church had not held a fundraiser, and the pastor subsequently notifie LAPD to investigate. After interviewing persons at the church and the preschool, LAPD suspected foodborne illness and contacted DPH on April 8.
This isn't the first time "inadvertent ingestion of marijuana" has happened: Similar episodes of inadvertent ingestion of marijuana occurred in Colorado in 1978 and in California in 1981, where persons unknowingly ingested marijuana in baked goods. Good thing it's only happened twice before.
MMWR said the findings suggest the need the consider marijuana as a potential contaminant during foodborne illness investigations.
Best part of the article? "All the affected preschool teachers were able to continue conducting classes that day." Awesome. Good to know that the state of our educational system is such that nobody notices a difference when our teachers are high.
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