4 y/o tests positive for cocaine

[Daethian]

N.Y. Preschooler Tests Positive For Cocaine
Teacher Became Suspicious Of Balloons

POSTED: 6:18 PM EST January 29, 2004
TROY, N.Y. -- Police in Troy want to know why a 4-year-old girl tested positive for cocaine.

A test showed the drug in the urine of the preschooler after her teacher became suspicious when she saw the girl and her Head Start classmates playing with small balloons, police said.

The children behaved strangely when asked who brought the balloons to class, according to police. Since the children touched the balloons with their mouths, the teacher called in a health monitor, who then noticed the girl's vital signs were elevated.

The girl and four other preschoolers who handled the balloons were taken to a hospital for drug tests. Police said the school notified the parents immediately and the parents gave hospital workers permission to test their children.

Only the 4-year-old girl's test came back positive, police said.

Tests on the balloons showed they weren't tainted with cocaine, but state crime-lab workers are double-checking to make sure those results are correct.

"It's likely that the innocent introduction of balloons into this daycare brought us to the point of finding dangerous drugs in the system of a 4-year-old," Troy Police Detective John Cooney said. "We don't routinely test our 4-year-old preschoolers for dangerous drugs."

The child is home with her mother in Troy while police and social workers continue to investigate.

"We're interviewing everyone who has come into contact with her," Cooney said.

Police said the girl's relatives have cooperated during interviews and submitted to drug tests.

It makes you half afraid to let yor child touch anything.

Things like this are truly sickening

[Barbie]

What is this world coming ot. I hope they find out what is going on and they hang the idiot who gave it to her.

[SouthernJen]

The only way I can think of that cocaine got into the child's system is if she inhaled the smoke from crack. Either way, it's sickening.

[Daethian]

I'm not sure if I missed something about the balloons but I didn't see what that had to do with anything?

[April]

I think the teacher was afraid that the kids had been exposed to a substance that was on the balloons and from there they accidentally discovered the cocaine in the child's system. :confused:

That's just crazy! Four year olds are hyper enough as it is!

[OnederWoman]

That's terrible! I wonder where the cocaine came from. Poor little girl.

[PsychoBunny]

Wow! That is really frightening! That poor little girl. I really don't even know what to say about it, but I'll be very interested to find out what comes from this case.