UPDATE: According to Semmes Police, 18-year-old Terrian Williams was arrested on a felony warrant in this investigation Wednesday morning.
2/1/23 Update:
ORIGINAL STORY:
The Mobile County Sheriff's Office says two Mary G. Montgomery students, a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old, are now also facing charges for taking pictures of people's credit cards at the fast food restaurant they worked at and using them to buy THC laced candy online. Semmes Police say several students ingested the drugs at school and two went to the hospital with adverse reactions. We asked authorities how minors are getting drugs online.
"A lot are going to social media websites, and they go into like dark chat rooms a lot of times to go find these narcotics. It's a troubling trend we're seeing, and they're so easy to get," said DEA Resident Agent in Charge Michael Burt.
Burt says DEA agents actively look for online drug dealers but it's not always easy or quick work.
"These are dark web investigations that take lots of time, and we're always trying to find the source the person behind it, who's supplying the children," said Burt.
"The majority of young people get THC or most of their drugs online. They originate somewhere online. They can get it through any of the social media platforms like Snapchat, Tic Tok," said Drug Education Council Executive Director Virginia Guy.
Guy says parents need to not only closely monitor online activity but also pay attention to their children's money and how it's being spent. Guy says people should understand how the potency of marijuana has changed. She says decades ago, it would maybe have 20-30 milligrams of THC. Now, she says it's common to see 60-70 milligrams and some products even advertise having 500 milligrams of THC, enough she says, to cause people to have psychotic episodes.
"This is the most dangerous time I've ever seen in the history of drug use. We're losing too many young people, and we really need to teach our young people not to take anything online or from a friend or from anybody that they know didn't come directly from a legitimate pharmacy," said Guy.