Bride and caterer accused of lacing wedding feast with weed

Jeffrey Belmonte feasted on meatballs, Caesar salad and bread with herb dip at his wife’s cousin’s wedding in Longwood, Florida – and then felt strange, tingly and fidgety.

His sister-in-law also became dizzy and found herself on her hands and knees, vomiting up her dinner.

Miranda Cady, who knew the bride through friends, ate the bread and olive oil, too. She later felt like her heart was going to stop. She went to her car, and was so terrified that she’d die there, she sent herself a text so people would know what had happened to her.

Those were the accounts Danya and Andrew Svoboda’s wedding guests told deputies after the February reception. Their feelings of being stoned were later confirmed when they tested positive for cannabis.

Investigators estimate that about 50 people attended the wedding reception. None of the guests interviewed said they knew there would be cannabis in the food.

Now, Danya Svoboda and the wedding caterer, Joycelyn Bryant, have been charged with food tampering and the delivery of marijuana, both felonies, as well as negligence, a misdemeanour.

As cannabis has become legal in many parts of the US, stories of dangerous incidents in which unsuspecting people, often children, consume dopeinfused food have become common.

In March, three toddlers in Stafford County, Virginia were hospitalised after apparently eating cannabislaced goldfish crackers at their day care centre. Earlier this month, 14 elementary school pupils in New Mexico were medically evaluated after eating THC gummies one of them had brought to school, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

In Florida, medical cannabis is legal, but recreational use remains prohibited.

Douglas Postma, the groom’s uncle, told deputies he hadn’t used cannabis for many years until he ate the wedding food, according to an arrest affidavit. It had felt different before, he said. This time, his heart started racing and he started having ‘‘crazy thoughts’’. Postma’s wife, Nancy, later went to a hospital emergency room and became paranoid, loud and unruly, believing that one of her family members had died, she later told deputies, according to the affidavit. Earlier, Nancy Postma and her daughter went into the kitchen, looking for water and explaining that they were feeling unwell. According to the affidavit, one of the staff told them, ‘‘Well, there’s cannabis in the food’’.

Cady told deputies that she recalled seeing Bryant pull a ‘‘green substance’’ from a bowl and place it into small dishes that were then filled with olive oil, the affidavit states. After she ate bread and the olive oil dip, she felt stoned.

Cady then asked Bryant if there was cannabis in the food. Bryant ‘‘giggled and shook her head yes’’, the affidavit states.

Going out to the dance floor, Cady found the bride and asked if she had put cannabis in the olive oil. According to the affidavit, Svoboda replied ‘‘Yes’’, smiling and acting as though she had given Cady a ‘‘gift’’.

Around 9pm, she said, the band stopped playing and the reception ended. Seminole County firefighters eventually showed up, as did sheriff’s deputies.

– Washington Post