Man Sold Marijuana Edibles To Children Across Montgomery Co.: DA

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia man has been hit with felony drug charges after authorities said he made and sold marijuana-laced foods to school-age students and encouraged juveniles to sell the foods.

Quashon Rice, 20, of Philadelphia, is facing charges related to manufacturing and selling homemade THC-laced cereal snacks, then delivering them directly to middle schools, high schools, parks and purchasers' homes, Montgomery County authorities said.

He is charged for the 19 sales and deliveries within Montgomery County, 18 of which were to juveniles.

Rice is accused of selling drug-laced foods on the "top2treats" Instagram account.

The charges stem from an investigation launched in May this year after a police resource officer responded to the East Norriton Middle School cafeteria where school officials believed a middle school student had been provided an edible marijuana snack without his knowledge and was now sick.

Authorities said the sick student was given the treat by another student, who they said was selling the treats after buying them on the "top2treats" social media account.

The purchased edibles were then delivered to the student at their home, a local park or in the neighborhood, and the student paid for them in cash.

Investigators later learned Rice owned the accounts and found that he communicated with the aforementioned juvenile, as well as others, quoting specific prices, delivery fees and a variety of edible THC products available including Fruity Pebbles bars, cookies, brownies, Cinnamon Toast Crunch bars and other types of edibles, authorities said.

Eventually, the account was shut down, but authorities said Rice started another account, "toptreatz4," where he continued to sell the laced foods.

Through investigation of the Instagram accounts, detectives learned Rice facilitated the sale of drugs to children at locations including public middle schools, high schools, public parks, an Urban Air trampoline park, and his juvenile customers' homes, according to authorities.

Authorities also said Rice knew he was selling drugs to children as young as 11 or 12 years old.

The drug-laced bars were delivered to multiple areas in Montgomery County including Ambler, Bala Cynwyd, Bridgeport, Cheltenham, King of Prussia, Norristown, and Willow Grove, authorities said.

Additionally, messages showed Rice solicited some juveniles to help him sell the drug-laced edibles, authorities said.

In exchange for a discount, he also asked buyers to repost and tag his Instagram sales posts that advertised the various types of THC bars and prices, according to authorities.

An arrest warrant was served on Rice in Philadelphia on June 14.

At the time of Rice’s arrest, authorities found a "ghost gun," materials used to make the THC-laced edibles, about 40 individually packaged homemade edibles, and about 10 bags of individually packaged bags of marijuana in counterfeit commercial packaging, authorities said.

"This defendant was targeting children as young as 11 years old to sell his drugs to, embedding drugs in cereals and snack products that appeal to children. He then sold them where children are—on social media, specifically Instagram, where he would show the product as well as provide step-by-step instructions for how the kids could order the edibles and have them delivered," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said. "This defendant’s illegal drug trafficking business supplying drugs to children and encouraging children to be drug dealers is an egregious case. We will be seeking a long state prison sentence so that he will be in a place where he won’t be able to harm any more children."

He is charged with solicitation of minors to traffic drugs, possession with intent to deliver, criminal use of a communications facility, possession of a controlled substance and corruption of minors.

Rice was held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility after failing to post $95,000 cash bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on June 27.