PARSLEY-POT RUSE GETS KIDS SUSPENDED

PALM COAST -- Two Flagler County elementary school pupils were
arrested last week after pretending a plastic bag of parsley was marijuana.

An arrest report by Cpl. Don Apperson, a school resource deputy with
the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, said the two girls, each
10-year-old pupils at Old Kings Elementary School, were showing
classmates a plastic bag with a green leafy substance they said was marijuana.

School officials learned of the alleged bag of marijuana and called
the girls into a conference with their parents. The girls admitted
they did not have marijuana and said that the bag of parsley, which
they brought to school in their book bags, was a prank, the report said.

The girls were charged under a state law that makes it a crime to
claim that a substance is a drug -- whether or not the item is
intended for sale or distribution, according to Sheriff's Office
spokeswoman Debra Johnson. They were taken to the Flagler County
Inmate Facility and later released to their parents.

The girls were also suspended from school and ordered to attend drug
awareness classes.