Six students who unintentionally overdosed on stolen prescription drugs last week, have been released from the hospital, according to the South Portland Police Department.

South Portland police said last week that they suspected one of the hospitalized students of stealing the drugs from a home in Cape Elizabeth. Though charges have not been brought against any of the teens, both the South Portland and Cape police departments have made their recommendations to the district attorney’s office. South Portland Officer Robert Scarpelli said he expects charges will be brought forth within a few weeks.

The South Portland High School students were males from 14 to 17 years old. They were hanging out at their friend’s home in South Portland when they took the white pills. Police have declined to reveal what kind of pills the students took.

At approximately 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 17, South Portland rescue received two calls within minutes of each other. The callers, who where worried parents, described the same symptoms, saying their children were glassy-eyed and incoherent. After hearing the kids’ symptoms, police began to suspect drugs were involved.

Once the students regained their faculties, they were questioned by police. From those interviews, police deduced that there were other kids who had also taken the pills. Police then contacted those student’s homes, discovering four more students in need of medical treatment. Altogether, five students were rushed to Mercy Hospital and Maine Medical Center, one student was taken to the hospital by a parent.

At approximately one hour earlier that same day, Cape Elizabeth police received a report of stolen prescription drugs from a home in the Spurwink Avenue area. The home was not broken into and multiple children live in the home.

Cape Elizabeth High School Principal Jeffrey Shedd said he doesn’t think kids are experimenting any more or less with drugs and alcohol than they have in the past. The effects of alcohol and marijuana use are predictable, he said. The effects of prescription drugs are not. Kids are often willing to experiment with prescription drugs that they can’t identify and therefore they don’t know the potential harm.

“That’s the scariest part,” he said. “With alcohol and marijuana, you more or less know what you’re getting.”