The legalization and commercialization of marijuana edibles in the U.S. reportedly has coincided with an escalation in cannabis-related poisonings.
More than 22,000 cannabis-related incidents were reported to poison control centers last year, according to data from America’s Poison Centers (APC). In 2009, only 930 such incidents were reported.
Among last year’s reported incidents, 13,000 caused documented negative effects and were classified as nonlethal poisonings, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Four deaths since 2009 likely were caused by cannabis poisoning, according to APC.
The Times added that the numbers “are almost certainly an undercount, public health officials say, because hospitals are not required to report such cases.”
Not only that, more than 75% of cannabis-related poisonings last year involved children or teenagers.
“I definitely have seen floridly psychotic 2-year-olds just waiting for the marijuana to leave their system because they got into someone’s gummies,” Dr. Shamieka Virella Dixon, a pediatrician at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, told the newspaper.
Dr. Robert Hendrickson, an emergency physician and professor at Oregon Health & Science University, said he treated a toddler who had eaten a cannabis cookie.
“The child had a seizure and then was put on a ventilator” and had additional seizures, Hendrickson said.
Using data from the national Poison Centers, court records, and surveying regional centers and more than 200 doctors and public health experts, the Times identified dozens of children who had consumed cannabis products from stashes belonging to relatives or friends and were hospitalized with symptoms such as paranoia and vomiting.
“We’re seeing a lot of accidental overdoses just because of the packaging,” said Dr. Stephen Sandelich, a pediatric emergency physician and assistant professor at Penn State.
The Times reported that although most instances of cannabis exposure did not result in serious physical effects, a growing number of poisonings led to breathing problems or other life-threatening consequences.
Only 10 such cases were reported in 2009. Last year, though, there were more than 620, with a majority being children or teens.
Amy Enochs, an Ohio mother, saw her fourth-grade daughter hospitalized after having eaten marijuana gummies she and other students thought were Easter candy.
“Her eyes were rolled back in her head, and she was completely out of it,” Enochs told the Times, adding that her daughter was convinced that the school was infested with aliens and that she had superpowers.
The Times report came two days after The Wall Street Journal reported President Donald Trump was considering reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
During a $1 million-a-plate fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club earlier this month, Trump told attendees he was interested in making such a change, the newspaper reported.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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