Teens hospitalized after eating drug-laced gummy bears in NW Indiana

About a dozen teenagers were hospitalized late Thursday after apparently eating drug-laced gummy bears at a home in northwest Indiana.

Police were initially called just before midnight to the 5200 block of North CR 325W near LaPorte for a 911 call requesting medical help for a sick teenager, according to the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department.

Officers found a 19-year-old man on the side of the road, who told police he had “ingested an unknown type drug and was ill and wanted to go to the emergency room.”

The man said he was not from the area, but had been camping with a group of friends at a nearby home, and all had ingested the drugs, police said.

Police searched the area and at a nearby home found 10 other teenagers who said they had taken the unknown drug and were suffering “rapid heart rate, pain in their legs and blurred vision; several suffering from hallucinations,” police said.

All had “ingested one half of a gummy bear that supposedly contained THC,” police said. Tetrahydrocannabinol is an active ingredient in marijuana.

Two of the patients tested positive for high levels of THC in their system, police said.

Four of the victims were taken to Franciscan St. Anthony Hospital in Michigan City, and seven were taken to La Porte Hospital. All were from Fishers, Indiana, and police they were staying at the home of a relative of one of the victims, nine of whom were 18, while the other two were 19. Six were men and five were women.

LaPorte County Drug Task Force investigators are trying to discover where the drug-laced bears came from, while the LaPorte County prosecutor’s office was investigating to see if criminal charges are warranted, police said.