Edible Pot Sends Toddlers to Colorado ERs

Edible Pot Sends Toddlers to Colorado ERs

Cannabis-laced candy, baked goods look irresistible to kids, doctors warn

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, July 25, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Young children in Colorado are winding up in the emergency room after ingesting pot-laced goodies left out in the open by adults, doctors report.

In 2014, Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana. Shortly after, a sharp increase occurred in the number of Colorado kids younger than 10 who fell ill after being exposed to pot, researchers found.

Edible products -- cannabis-laced brownies, cookies, candy and the like -- were responsible for about half of these cases, said senior study author Dr. Genie Roosevelt, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist with the Denver Health and Hospital Authority.

"Edible marijuana products look very much like a regular food product, and so they're very attractive to kids because it's candy and baked goods, and also very palatable," Roosevelt said.

The average rate of marijuana-related visits to Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora nearly doubled following legalization. The rate two years after legalization was 2.3 children per 100,000 population, compared with 1.2 per 100,000 population two years prior to legalization, the study found.

The regional Poison Control Center that serves Colorado also saw a more than fivefold increase in reported cases of children made ill from marijuana -- from nine in 2009 to 47 last year, the researchers said. And the average increase in calls to poison centers statewide was nearly twice that of the rest of the country.

Most kids became very sleepy after their exposure to marijuana, or experienced a loss of balance or coordination, Roosevelt said.

But, Roosevelt added, "we have seen some very sick children who have been put on a ventilator and admitted to the ICU. It sedates them so much that it interferes with their ability to breathe."

Parents were the most frequent source of the pot, the investigators found, along with grandparents, neighbors, friends, babysitters and other family members.

People have become more careless in how they store their marijuana following legalization of recreational use, said Dr. J. Michael Bostwick. He is chair of consultation and hospital practice for the Mayo Clinic psychiatry and psychology department in Rochester, Minn.

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