HAMPTON, Va. — Parents were none to pleased to find out some students at the Phenix School had taken magic mushrooms.
The school system notified parents about the incident, which happened last week.
A fifth grade student gave psilocybin-infused candy to ten students, and four of them took it.
Hampton
5th graders eat 'magic mushroom' candy from classmate
Magic mushrooms remain illegal in Virginia, despite two states legalizing them and other states decriminalizing them in certain cities.
"In the state of Virginia, it's a class five felony," said Dustin Weekley, the co-owner of Bountifuel Utopia in Norfolk.
The mushrooms can cause people to hallucinate, which some people do for fun in what's called tripping.
Some say small doses of it can help with issues like anxiety or PTSD.
"Even if you're all for the therapeutic values of these mushrooms, the fact that kids have them in school should be concerning," said Weekley. "I mean it's mind altering substances."
While this incident involves magic mushrooms, health leaders have been sounding the alarm about intoxicating products finding their way into the hands of children, particularly THC products.
Watch previous coverage: 4 Hampton school students eat 'magic mushroom'-infused candy brought in by classmate
"Treat it like it's a narcotic medication or something like that," said Weekley.
School leaders said the brand found with the students is called Mr. Mushies.
News 3 reached out to them for comment, but they blocked the Instagram account and then made theirs private.
Last year, the Virginia Senate passed a bill to authorize a study of psilocybin's therapeutic uses, but it did not advance in the House.
"Whether you're for them or against them, you can't argue with the fact that kids are easily distorted, manipulated, or altered by substances like this and it's not god for them to take," said Weekley.
