'Ecstasy' video was a hoax, participants say

By now, you might have already seen the video floating around the Internet that seems to show a toddler who has been given ecstasy. If not, you can check it out here — just be prepared to see a lot of stupidity. In short, it's a video that first appeared on YouTube (it's since been removed); it shows the child sitting on the floor of a van, eyes rolling, as she's tapped, squeezed and slapped by a young woman. "Cookie, stop rolling, girl," the woman tells the child in the video. "You shouldn't have popped no X."

The video caused an uproar online, where viewers figured out it seemed to have been made in Texas (a brochure in the car is from Jackson County, southwest of Houston, and the video was originally linked to the MySpace page of a Houston woman). Now, Harris County authorities say they've interviewed all nine people in the van, and the nine claim the whole thing was a hoax. Investigators say they were told the girl is impressionable and will do whatever anyone asks her to — so she had been asked to roll her eyes back into her had while she was being taped. Investigators said they're not sure whether the little girl was really drugged or not: "There is not enough information to say with any degree of certainty whether or not (the toddler) was exposed to any illegal drugs," Harris County Sheriff's Lt. John Martin said. What is clear, though, is that the video was in very bad taste. "It's a pathetic situation," Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback told the AP. "The attitude in that was vehicle was terrible. The laughter, the things that are said in the video were just pathetic."

Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident. The toddler will be tested for drugs, though ecstasy usually only shows up in drug tests within 48 hours after it's taken and the people in the video said it was filmed June 22. Harris County Child Protective Services — which has put the girl in the video and another child who was in the van in the temporary care of relatives — will also conduct an investigation, spokeswoman Estella Olguin said. "We are looking at more than just whether a crime was committed," she said. "We also are looking at the welfare of these children, if they are in a safe environment, if there is cause for concern."