4 Columbus students ill after smoking spice

COLUMBUS, Ind. -- Officials say high school students were taken to a hospital after becoming ill from smoking the synthetic marijuana known as spice.

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools spokesman Larry Perkinson says a boy went to the Columbus North High School nurse on Wednesday with high blood pressure and a panic attack. Perkinson tells WISH-TV the boy said he and three girls had used the drug before going to school.

All four students were treated for similar symptoms and released from Columbus Regional Hospital.

State legislators have passed laws in recent years banning such synthetic drugs, but manufacturers keep changing the chemical compounds.

State Rep. Milo Smith tells WTHR-TV one of the students told him they got the drug from another teen at a restaurant near the high school.