SALINAS, California (CBS Newspath) Underage drinking might be found in the form of candy. Teenagers in California are now using gummy bears to get drunk. But this problem may be more widespread.

They're a sweet staple of any kid's afternoon pick me up.
But now Hollister police—who posted this warning on their facebook page today—and the San Benito County Health Department want you to know gummy bears aren't so innocent anymore.

They are soaking gummy bears with vodka and the bears soak up all the alcohol so its undetectable.

Renee Hankla said the county already knew teens in San Benito had a drinking problem three years ago.

That's why it applied for a 1.3 million dollar federal grant to prevent underage drinking.

Hankla says, "teens are very creative and intelligent and can think of ways to sneak alcohol past adults."

"They can ingest more than they know theyre ingesting because they are taking handfuls of candy and they don't know how much they've ingested so they can become pretty intoxicated pretty quickly.

In 2008— a survey showed 54% of high school kids in san benito county said they had a drink in the past 30 days and 40% said they got sick from drinking in the last month— and now gummy bears could cause those numbers to spike... So the county and police are getting the word out.

Teachers and admin at San Benito High know about this trend and are faced now with the daunting task of monitoring something as innocent as candy i just picked up down the street.

"We have to be very astute in our powers of observation we have to notice student behaviors and we have to be vigilant in detecting behavior that is out of the ordinary so we can keep our students safe."