Shortly after eating meatballs, bread, tortellini and Caesar salad, guests at the wedding of Andrew and Dania Liberty began to feel strange, according to authorities in Seminola County, Florida.
A man, the groom’s uncle, who is visiting from Michigan, said he felt “tingling.” His heart pounded and he “has crazy thoughts,” according to a sworn statement from police.
Another guest began to feel nauseous and dizzy, even though she had drunk only one glass of red wine. Another woman said her heart felt it would stop.
Guests at the Feb. 19 wedding soon learned that the food included marijuana, according to an affidavit written by Detective Daniel Anderson.
Ms. Liberty, 42, of Longwood, Florida, and catering Joycelyn Bryant, 31, have been charged with two counts – counterfeiting food and delivering marijuana – and guilty of negligence, a felony. They were arrested on Monday and will be charged in June. Ms Svoboda and Ms Bryant did not respond to comments.
According to court records, Ms. Svoboda’s lawyer was not named in the 18th Judicial District Court in Seminoule County. A lawyer named for Ms. Bryant did not respond to a phone message or email for comment.
The arrests announced Wednesday by WESH-2, NBC’s Orlando affiliate, come as more states make marijuana legal, and as the House of Representatives recently passed legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, an attempt to take advantage of the political resonance of legalized cannabis as a problem of economic growth and racial justice.
But the effects reported by wedding guests in Florida highlighted warnings from some in the medical community about the potential dangers of ingesting or smoking marijuana, which could include disorientation, vomiting and impaired driving, as well as more serious health problems such as cancer and pregnancy. problems.
Police said several of the 50 wedding guests said they felt elated after eating at the front desk of a club in Longwood, a town of about 15,000 people, 15 miles north of Orlando. .
Police arrived around 9:30 a.m. tonight after receiving a call for help from the Seminol County Fire and Rescue Service, which was sent to the clubhouse.
An MP approached Mr Svoboda and asked if he and his wife had “agreed or asked” for cannabis in their food.
Mr Svoboda looked back with a blank expression for a few moments before stuttering “no”, Detective Anderson wrote.
According to the sworn testimony, Mr. Svoboda was not arrested. Police collected lasagna and bread that were discarded after the wedding and sent them to a cannabis testing facility that found THC in the food, Detective Anderson said.
No one announced at the wedding that there would be marijuana in the food, the detective wrote. One of the guests was so worried about the side effects of the drug that her husband called a paramedic, according to the affidavit. Several people went to the hospital.
One of the guests, who was identified as Miranda Cady in the affidavit, said she learned she had been “stoned to death” after eating bread and dipping it in oil.
When asked by Ms. Svoboda if she had put marijuana in olive oil, the bride said “yes” and “acted as if Miranda Cady should be excited,” the affidavit said, “as if she had been given a gift.”
Ms. Cady said she also approached Ms. Bryant, who saw her put a green substance on small plates, and asked if there was marijuana in the food.
Mrs. Bryant “giggled” and “shook her head,” according to the affidavits.
When Ms. Cady learned that she had eaten cannabis-containing foods, she said she was “horrified” and went to her car to try to fall asleep.
“She sent a message to her in case she died in her car to find out what had happened to her,” Detective Anderson wrote.
Ms. Cady, 38, said in an interview Thursday that she considered Ms. Svoboda a friend before the wedding and felt “hurt” by what happened.
“It was scars,” she said. “Who do you trust?”
If she had driven, she said, “it could have been catastrophic.”
Ms. Cady said she spoke briefly with Ms. Svoboda after the wedding over the phone.
“I was able to tell her how I was feeling and she expressed her sympathy for how I was feeling,” Ms Cady said. “But that was the extent of it.”
She said she was still waiting for a “sincere, direct apology”.
“I think a lot of people are waiting for that,” Ms. Cady said.
On her website, Ms. Bryant described herself as a “holistic chef” who started her business in 2013.
“Through passion, consistency and organic evolution, JSK has since grown to include an expanded range of services and offerings that are increasingly plant-based,” the website said, citing its business, Joycelyn’s Southern Kitchen. The site describes the kitchen as a “laboratory, classroom” and “common space”.
“Let your mind expand in the possibilities of what can be born,” the website said.
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