Florida bride and wedding caterer charged with spiking food with cannabis

Some guests hospitalised after chaotic February incident

Chaos broke out at a wedding in Florida in February, after guests ate food that was allegedly laced with marijuana.

Bride Danya Shea Svoboda and caterer Joycelyn Bryant were arrested on Monday and charged with two felonies each of food tampering and delivery of marijuana, after Ms Svoboda "agreed to and allowed Joycelyn Montrinice Bryant to lace the food she served ... with cannabis unbeknownst to the attendees, many of whom became very ill and required medical attention,” according to Florida police.

A lawyer for Ms Svoboda has declined to comment on the case, and Ms Bryant did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent.

Soon after eating, guests at the event, in the city of Longwood near Orlando, began to suspect there was more than just marinara sauce in the lasagna.

Miranda Cady, a wedding guest, told police she began to get very afraid once she started feeling high, and went to her car to try and sleep it off, sending a text to herself because she worried she would die and wanted to offer  an explanation for what happened.

“It was scarring,” she told The New York Times. “Who do you trust?”

One man, an uncle attending the 19 February wedding from Michigan, reported having “crazy thoughts” and a pounding heartbeat, according to police arrest documents. Others told investigators they felt “stoned,” “ill and high,” as well as “weird, tingly, fidgety and had an extremely dry mouth.”

One woman even became so paranoid she believed that her son-in-law had died and no one was telling her, police said.

When officers arrived at the wedding, they asked the groom, Andrew Svoboda, if he knew or had requested the food be laced with pot, and he "stared at (the deputy) with a blank expression for a few moments before stuttering through a ‘no,’” according to the arrest affidavit.

Ms Svoboda allegedly confessed to putting cannabis in the food, according to investigators. Arrest documents describe how a guest asked her if she “put marijuana in the olive oil,” to which the bridge answered yes and acted excited, suggesting the guest should act “as if she were given a gift,” according to police.

Testing later showed at least three guests had signs of cannabis in their urine, and the lasagna also tested positive for marijuana.

Both women have bonded out of Seminole County Jail, and will be arraigned in June.