A study released on Tuesday found that over the course of five years, as marijuana became legal in more states throughout the U.S., the number of young children, particularly toddlers, who accidentally ate food laced with marijuana increased substantially.
Between 2017 and 2021, more than 7,000 confirmed incidents of children younger than six consuming marijuana edibles were reported to the nation’s poison control centers, an increase from approximately 200 to more than 3,000 per year.
Children Who Accidentally Ate Cannabis Edibles Jumped 1,375%
According to a new analysis published in the journal Pediatrics, about a quarter of the youngsters were hospitalized, with some suffering from severe illnesses.
And those are only the recorded cases, said Dr. Marit Tweet, a medical toxicologist from the Southern Illinois School of Medicine and the study’s leader.
More states have legalized medical and recreational cannabis use, coinciding with an increase in the number of instances of children consuming cannabis-infused items such as candy, chocolate, and cookies. Currently, 37 states in the United States legalize the medical use of marijuana, while 21 states regulate the recreational use of marijuana by adults.
The tweet asked for increased parental vigilance and additional legislation similar to those imposed by numerous states to make marijuana goods, which are frequently packaged to resemble children’s candy and snacks, less enticing and accessible to youngsters.
Tweet and her colleagues evaluated submissions to the National Poison Data System, which consists of the nation’s 55 regional poison control centers. The survey revealed that a majority of the children were toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3. Over 90% obtained the edibles at home.
Nearly 5,000 cases out of more than 7,000 reports were able to be tracked by researchers. They discovered that roughly 600 children, or around 8%, were admitted to intensive care units, most frequently with slowed or even absent respiration.
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Report Is Not Surprising
Nearly 15% of patients were admitted to non-intensive care units, and over a third were seen in emergency rooms. The most common symptoms were drowsiness, difficulty breathing, rapid heart rate, and vomiting.
Dr. Brian Schultz, a pediatric emergency physician at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, stated that the results are not unexpected. He previously worked at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he and his colleagues nearly regularly treated children who had consumed marijuana edibles.
During the last two years of the study, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases and hospitalizations increased.
The tweet stated that since more youngsters were at home, there were more opportunities to locate cannabis edibles. She added that, as marijuana became more broadly allowed, parents may have felt less stigma when seeking assistance from poison centers and health care experts.
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