Police: Mother Charged After Boy, 3, Found With Traces Of Cocaine In His System From Drug-Laced Gummy Worm
MCKEES ROCKS (KDKA) -- A mother from McKees Rocks is facing charges after police say her 3-year-old son ate a piece of drug-laced candy.
According to the criminal complaint, Darlena Johnson's 3-year-old son ended up in UPMC Children's Hospital emergency room last month. He was twitching and lethargic.
Police said the hospital staff performed a urine test on the boy that "showed positive results for THC," a compound found in marijuana.
It was at that time, police say, that Johnson told the doctors that the boy had eaten a "THC gummy worm that she had purchased from a gas station."
Police say Johnson then became "hostile and uncooperative with the hospital staff," calling the gummy worms "candy" and refusing to allow the staff to further examine her son.
The criminal complaint reports that when the hospital workers recommended she keep the drug-laced gummy worms in a lockbox, she told them, "I don't need a lock box because I don't have any more edibles."
Investigators say a comprehensive drug screening on the boy eventually showed he also had "traces of cocaine and cocaine metabolite" in his system.
Police say Johnson told a Child, Youth and Family services case worker that she had not brought the gummy worms from a gas station; but instead, she "purchased it off the street."
Johnson, 29, is facing endangering the welfare of children charges.
She posted bail. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18.
