OBN Investigating After Illegal Edibles Send 2 Oklahomans To Hospital

Two people ended up in the hospital over the weekend after eating what they thought were a few bags of chips. Instead, it turned out to be marijuana edibles.

The edible bags look almost identical to a regular bag of chips. It's one reason, they're illegal in Oklahoma and the state Bureau of Narcotics is trying to figure out how they got here.

"They have no business being in our state, they're completely illegal," said spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, Mark Woodward.

The bags of chips, with THC, were made in California.

"You have Doritos, Fritos, and Ruffles logos right there on them and the only differentiation is a very small logo in the corner that can be easily missed," explained Woodward.  

The OBN is now trying to re-trace the products' steps after they sent two people to the hospital.

"Trying to track down whether these were sold in Oklahoma on the black market, possibly sold from the dispensary, or simply sold or handed to these individuals by a friend who might have smuggled them in here from California," said Woodward.

People, especially children, being hospitalized after eating marijuana products is a trend health care workers said they are seeing a lot of.

"In the past year we've seen about 40 cases of kids needing to be hospitalized," said Dr. Katherine Grant, the Emergency Department Medical Director at the Oklahoma Children's Hospital. "A child sees a brownie or a piece of cake or a cookie and they think, single serving. I'm going to eat the entire thing."

Those single wrapped foods also can contain more than one dose, making eating a whole package that much more concerning.

"If they [the Oklahoma Center for Poison and Drug Information] advise you to come to the emergency room bring in the product or the packaging if you still have it. It's incredibly helpful for us to predict what you're most likely going to see," said Grant.

Even though it can be legally purchased here, bringing any kind of marijuana from outside the state carries a hefty penalty.

"The same penalties as somebody who brought in cocaine, heroin or fentanyl and somebody ended up in the hospital," said Woodward.

Experts said to keep medical marijuana products up and out of sight like any other prescribed medication.