Last week when Lathrop Police responded to a call for a home invasion, they arrived just as a vehicle was speeding away from the residence.

After officers initiated a traffic stop, they contacted an adult female driver and two juveniles that they soon discovered had visited the residence to try and sell cannabis when an altercation occurred.

A search of the vehicle returned a small amount of processed cannabis flower as well as cannabis vape pens, a small quantity of psychoactive mushrooms, and a loaded, stolen, semiautomatic handgun.

The driver was taken into custody and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on a host of drug and gun charges, while both juveniles were booked into the San Joaquin County Juvenile Hall.

Cannabis vape pens, which heat up a resin containing a high concentration of THC to a temperature where the ensuing vapor produced can be inhaled, have become extremely popular with young people because of their ease of use and the relatively small footprint left behind.

Some schools in the area have gone so far as to install sensors in bathrooms to detect smoke or vapor that contains THC, sending an alert to a designated person on campus rather than setting off the fire alarm. Some of the sensors are so precise they can determine between cigarette smoke and cannabis smoke and vapor that contains either THC or nicotine.

The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, under previous district attorney Tori Verber Salazar, signed on to a lawsuit against Juul — the nicotine vaping company that had become popular with teenagers — to send a message that marketing dangerous substances to kids would not be tolerated in San Joaquin County.

To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.