Charges: 2 kids hospitalized after overdosing on chocolate laced with ‘magic mushrooms’

A Minnesota grade-schooler took her mom’s chocolate candy bar laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms to school and overdosed along with a fellow student who ate a smaller amount, according to charges against the woman.

Cassie Rae Tauriainen, 39, of Cokato, was charged in Wright County District Court last week with three felonies: possession of methamphetamine, storing an illicit drug in the presence of a child and child endangerment in connection with her 6-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old boy falling ill on Sept. 10 at Cokato Elementary School.

Tauriainen’s daughter was taken to Buffalo Hospital, where she initially “showed significant signs of impairment,” the criminal complaint read.

The girl “recovered quickly and gave a statement to law enforcement and [county] human services the next day,” County Attorney Brian Lutes said Wednesday. The boy was seen at a hospital and recovered as well, Lutes said.

Tauriainen, who has a history in Minnesota of drug and alcohol offenses and whose parental rights have been the subject of court action, was charged by warrant and has yet to be found by authorities.

In response Wednesday to an email request from the Minnesota Star Tribune for comment about the allegations, Tauriainen acknowledged that her daughter got ahold of the chocolate bar somewhere, but “I don’t know where. They said she got it from my fridge, but that is false. … So it is a heartache to think that that could happen, but it did by my negligence.”

Lutes said that while there has been phone contact between Tauriainen and the Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement is still “actively trying to locate her and arrest her. The defendant is evading arrest at this point.”

According to the complaint and a related court document:

Deputies were called to the school where a nurse determined the two children were showing signs of an overdose after eating chocolate during morning snack time.

Staff reported the two “had been laughing and crying while acting off,” one document noted. Staff later found in a garbage can the packaging for a Mmelt Magic Mushroom Chocolate Bar that contained 6 grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The 10-piece bar’s label was marked for adults only and said the effects of eating the chocolate depended on how much was eaten: 1-2 pieces: “micro mmelt,” 3-4 pieces: ”mindful mmelt," 5 or more: “mmelt away.”

School staff immediately reached out to Tauriainen, but she did not respond to calls.

The Sheriff’s Office searched Tauriainen’s home and found fentanyl, methamphetamine and various drug paraphernalia in multiple rooms. There was meth near a child’s cup and clothing.

“The methamphetamine, fentanyl and drug paraphernalia were all within reach and accessible to a child,” the complaint read.

The girl told a county social worker that she took the chocolate bar out of the refrigerator.

At the time of the charges, Tauriainen was on probation in Wright County for possessing meth in June.

In May 2022, she was stopped in Lake City in southeastern Minnesota and subsequently charged with drunken driving. Two children were in her vehicle at the time. A plea agreement led to the drunken driving charge being dropped in exchange for her admitting to driving after her license had been revoked and having an open bottle of liquor in her vehicle.

In 2019, a child protection petition was filed in McLeod County District Court in connection with Tauriainen’s drug and alcohol abuse. The court’s supervision was lifted a year later by Judge Jessica Maher after social workers determined the mother had remained free of chemical dependency.

Another child protection petition was filed in Goodhue County in 2022 on behalf of the daughter, who was 3 years old at the time. The petition cited Tauriainen’s drunken driving offense in April of that year and the fact that the girl was in the vehicle with her.