Three 7-year-old students were hospitalized Monday after briefly ingesting what police believe may have been a "methamphetamine-related drug" while at school, authorities said.
Rockville City Police and Montgomery County Police detectives responded to College Gardens Elementary School in Rockville, Maryland, on April 17 when three students became sick, the Montgomery County Department of Police said in a press release.
The three children found a container of "blue items" that they thought was candy, and briefly ingested them before spitting them out, according to police.
The children went to the school nurse once they started to feel dizzy and were taken to area hospitals as a precaution, police said.
"None of the items were recovered, and detectives are unsure of exactly what the students consumed. However, based on toxicology of some of the victims, investigators believe that the items may have been a methamphetamine related drug, such as Adderall or MDMA," police said.
Adderall is a medication and stimulant used to treat ADHD and contains the drugs amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, according to the National Library of Medicine. MDMA, short for 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine, is an illegal drug chemically similar to stimulants and hallucinogens, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Both are controlled substances.
All of the children have been discharged from the hospital and are home with their parents, police said.
"I am relieved that the students will ultimately be fine, but in many ways, what happened today is frightening," Montgomery County Department of Police Chief Marcus Jones said in a statement. "I hope that it serves as a powerful motivator for parents to keep having the difficult conversations with their children about the dangers of taking or eating unknown substances."
Samantha Debourgh, a parent with a child at College Gardens Elementary, told DC News Now she got an email from the school saying officials found the children had reactions to candy, and she was astonished to hear it could have been methamphetamine-related drugs.
"This is something I always have to keep reminding her of, because kids tend to share," Debourgh said of her daughter. "I’m just grateful it wasn’t her. I’m sorry for the others who got impacted by that."
The investigation is still active and ongoing, police said.
