A four-year-old girl mistakenly took hundreds of packets of heroin to her day care center and began passing them out to classmates, thinking the drug was candy, Delaware State Police said on Tuesday.
Police said several children who received the packets on Monday morning went to the hospital as a precaution, but no packets were opened, and all of the children were released after being examined.
Police say the child unknowingly brought the heroin to the center when her mother gave her a different backpack because the girl’s regular backpack had been ruined by the family pet.
Police say the backpack contained nearly 250 packets of heroin, totaling nearly 4g, all labeled “Slam.”
The girl’s mother, Ashley Tull, 30, of Selbyville, was charged with three counts of child endangerment and maintaining a drug property. She was arraigned on Monday in Justice of the Peace Court and released on US$6,000 bond.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, a woman who identified herself as Tull’s sister, Alicia Tull, said Ashley Tull would not comment, but that the charges and the subsequent media attention were unfair.
Alicia Tull said that her sister had no idea that heroin was in the backpack and would not have sent her daughter to school with the backpack if she had known.
She said that Ashley Tull does not use or deal drugs and that she was taken advantage of by an individual who stored the drugs in Tull’s home without her knowledge.
The child endangerment counts relate to Tull’s three children, who range in age from four to 11.
As part of her release, Tull was ordered not to have any contact with her children, who are in the custody of a relative, police said.
The charge of maintaining a drug property means that a person knowingly allows drugs in the home, Delaware State Police spokesman Master Corporal Gary Fournier said.
It is a distinct crime from drug possession.
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