Arrest Warrant Issued for Suspect in Case of LSD-Laced Gum

Police sought to execute an arrest warrant Wednesday for a man suspected of making seven Marina High School students ill last December by giving them LSD-laced bubble gum.

Being sought is Luis Solis, 20, who lived with his parents in Huntington Beach and has disappeared.

“We’re doing everything we can to locate him,” said Police Lt. Dan Johnson. “We think he may have returned to Mexico.”

Police believe it was the first time chewing gum was used to transmit a drug, and they have found no motive for the incident.

Carolyn Shirley, a secretary at Marina High School, said Wednesday that Solis was never a student there or at any other high school in the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Marina principal Carol Osbrink said: “I’m very pleased with the efforts of the police that they have continued the investigation and they now have the name of the suspect.

“I have every faith that they will apprehend this individual. This will bring closure to this unfortunate incident at our high school.”

She said the students who ingested the LSD-laced gum are doing fine, and she intends to contact the parents and inform them that a suspect has been identified.

The incident occurred when four males--allegedly including Solis--who had been watching the school drill team practice approached the five girls and two boys and offered them bubble gum.

The girls who accepted the gum began to hallucinate after they went home, police said.

Investigators became aware of the situation when the mother of a Marina student called authorities to report that her son and his friend were acting “weird.” The two boys were taken to a hospital and treated.

Police said laboratory tests later showed that LSD had been inserted into slits in unchewed gum that had been turned over to police.

Interviews with the victims gave police enough information to issue an arrest warrant for Solis.

He is the only suspect being sought at this time, said Police Sgt. Larry Miller.