PATASKALA, Ohio – An Ohio 8-year-old was busted in her elementary school’s bathroom recently trying to smoke marijuana, and police are now investigating to determine how the child got her hands on the drug.

The Pataskala Police Department were called in to investigate after a school employee discovered an 8-year-old girl attempting to light marijuana in the Pataskala Elementary School bathroom Nov. 4, the Newark Advocate reports.

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The child attempted to ditch the drugs in the toilet, and in a trash can, but police recovered a very small amount of marijuana in the garbage, as well as a lighter.

“The good thing is she didn’t know how to (smoke marijuana),” Pataskala Police Chief Bruce Brooks told the news site. “She lit the (plastic) baggie.”

Family and neighbors of the girl told ABC 6 they believe the child was set up by a classmate on the bus to school.

“She got on the bus, and another little girl from Pataskala … gave her the drug,” a neighbor who did not want to be identified told the news site. “I take her with me to church. I go to church on Sundays and I take the little girl to church.”

The student’s older sister said the 8-year-old was initially suspended for 10 days, but the punishment was later reduced to a three-day suspension. She also said police and school officials are reviewing bus surveillance video to determine if others were involved.

Southwest Licking Local Schools Superintendent Robert Jennell would not discuss the case, but said the school is taking the incident “very, very seriously,” the Advocate reports.

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“Obviously … we take the tone in the district that (school) is not the place for drugs,” Jennell said. “We certainly want to make sure we reach out to all the organizations we can to give this student all the help possible.”

Brooks said police are working with Child Protective Services to determine how the student acquired the marijuana. He said those responsible for the “eye opening” ordeal could potentially face child endangerment charges.

The incident occurred a day after Ohio voters rejected a ballot proposal to fully legalize marijuana for adults in the Buckeye State.

Roughly 65 percent of voters opposed the initiative, while roughly 35 percent voted in favor. The opposition centered mostly on the fact that the proposal would have created a monopoly of 10 growers who would have controlled the market, the Associated Press reports.

“Issue 3 was nothing more and nothing less than a business plan to seize control of the recreational marijuana market in Ohio,” Curt Steiner, director of Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies, said after the proposal’s defeat. “Issue 3 was designed and built primarily to garner massive and exclusive profits for a small group of self-selected wealthy investors.”

Several folks who commented on the Pataskala episode attempted to tie it to the marijuana initiative, and it’s “Buddy” mascot.

“If the stuff were legal, she probably would have tried it sooner,” user JohnnyCleve10x posted to Cleveland.com. “She must have wanted to be like Buddy, strong and healthy.”

“Expect more of these incidents if marijuana is legalized in Ohio,” UnsafeBikePaths posted. “(M)aking marijuana more available means that kids will have more opportunity to get their hands on marijuana.  For instance, all they have to do is steal it from their parents or other adults, like they do with alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription pills.”

Others expressed opinions on the child’s punishment, which most thought was too harsh.

“Oh, better call the cops, all the armed forces too, call in the SWAT team,” Mike Reynolds wrote. “Gotta stomp on that kid with both feet! Show her the combined might of all our anti-drug crusading force! Seize her assets, and her parents’ assets too! Ruin her life and throw her in jail for 100 years!”

“They suspended an 8-year-old kid? C’mon. Eight-year-olds don’t have the sense to fully determine right from wrong anyway,” ClevelandBill posted. “This is not and cannot be her own knowing and willful act.

“The environment of zero tolerance is the government school version of white cops shooting unarmed black victims. What the girl needed was an understanding teacher to take her aside, explain the right/wrong, and educate the child,” he continued. “Instead, they mark this child as ‘trouble’ for the rest of her years in school, and possibly for life.”