Law Enforcement See An Increase In Marijuana-Laced Goods

A new drug trend is a problem for state law enforcement. They're seeing a surge in marijuana-laced snacks.

Police say many of the drugs are bought in Colorado and California then sold illegally in Oklahoma.

Packaging of the edibles has become so sophisticated, unless you're looking closely, you may not realize what the person is eating.

“You definitely see it in a lot of sweet type stuff; gummy bears, rice crispy treats, brownies, chocolate bars, cookies,” said Kevin Kramer, OSBI criminalistics administrator

Last week, a man was pulled over in Stillwater and arrested. Inside his car, investigators found sweets laced with weed, nearly 100 gummy worms, gummy bears and chocolate.

A K-9 sniffed out the drugs during a traffic stop.

Stillwater police say over the past year, they've seen an increase in the number of edible marijuana cases.

Police say most caught with the drugs are college-aged adults, 18 to 25.

Law enforcement thinks the increase is the result of Colorado's recreational marijuana laws.

“The increase has been over the last couple of years,” said Kramer. “When we really started seeing this is when Colorado legalized.”

In 2011, the OSBI's crime lab received just a dozen cases of edibles to be tested for THC. By 2014, the year Colorado's laws changed, cases jumped to roughly 20. Last year, OSBI received 35 cases.

“We got several cases that there's just one item or two items but then you some that there's a long list of a bunch of stuff in the one case,” said Kramer.  

Stillwater police said those numbers only reflect the number of felony cases. They say there are still dozens of other misdemeanor cases each year that are not sent to the OSBI lab.