Two Colorado College Students Face Assault Charges over Pot Brownies
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(BOULDER, Colo.) — Two University of Colorado Boulder college students are facing multiple felony charges, including assault, after allegedly giving marijuana-laced brownies to an unsuspecting professor and classmates during “bring food day” Friday, sending three of them to the hospital.
At about 10:20 Friday morning, police and paramedics responded to a campus building where a female professor was complaining of dizziness and was losing consciousness, according to a statement from the University of Colorado Boulder Police.
The professor was taken by ambulance to a hospital emergency room. Later that afternoon, a female student was taken to a hospital for an anxiety attack, while another went to a hospital after she said she felt like she was going to blackout.
In all, police said, eight people were affected. All the victims that went to the hospital have been released, police said.
“An investigation revealed that the three hospitalized victims — and five other classmates — were suffering from the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana,” University of Colorado Boulder Police said. “Two students — Thomas Ricardo Cunningham, 21, and Mary Elizabeth Essa, 19 — baked THC-laced brownies for the class as part of a ‘bring food day.’ The professor and classmates were unaware that the brownies contained THC.”
Cunningham and Essa could not be immediately reached for comment. They are facing felony charges, including assault in the second degree and inducing consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means.
“It’s serious,” Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett told ABC News. “People have to be able to make decisions about what happens to them.”
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