What About The Kids? Children's Hospitalizations For Cannabis Poisoning Are On The Rise

The number of children hospitalized for marijuana poisoning notably rose in several Canadian provinces after they had legalized edibles, reveals a new study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers discovered that Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario had seen the number of pediatric hospitalizations double from those in Quebec where the province kept marijuana edibles banned at the time of the research, reported CBC.

"Unlike adults where they would mostly get high, maybe a little bit drowsy, when young children ingest edibles, they may become very, very sick. We've seen kids with seizures, kids who stopped breathing," said Dr. Yaron Finkelstein, a senior author of the study and staff physician at SickKids Hospital in Toronto. 

"Their symptoms, especially in young children, can be more severe and can be life-threatening."

Even though cannabis edibles, such as gummies, candy, chocolate or baked goods are regulated under federal law, can only be sold in plain packaging, and cannot contain more than 10mg of THC, these rules don’t seem to be working as efficiently as they should. 

These precautions “are not enough," Finkelstein said. "Those kids are still at risk." 

The study author and a group of pediatricians advise parents and guardians to keep their edibles hidden and unreachable to children.

Study Key Points 

The researchers sought to find out how the legalization of cannabis edibles affected the number of child-related marijuana poisonings, so they compared provincial hospital data over three time periods:

• Before the legalization of cannabis in Canada (January 2015 to September 2018). 
• After cannabis first became legal (October 2018 to December 2019).
• After the legalization of edibles (January 2020 to September 2021).

In the first period, it was recorded an average of two hospitalizations per month in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. 

The number increased to 5.2 on average per month when cannabis was legalized.

After edibles became legal in those provinces, the number of average child hospitalizations rose to 14.9 in these three provinces.

Similar Situation In The US 

The study comes on the heels of recent news about the rates of children getting poisoned by marijuana edibles (that are specially designed to resemble popular candy) also climbing in the U.S. Even kids younger than five years old end up in the emergency room, Fox News reported.

“The majority of times the parents might not even realize it until the child is not waking up, or the child is walking funny,” New Jersey Poison Control managing director Bruce Ruck warned about the dangers, in an interview with Fox New

Copycat marijuana edibles are starting to be a public concern. This June, a bipartisan coalition of 23 state attorneys general sent a letter to Virginia AG Jason Miyares (R) and Nevada AG Aaron Ford (D), demanding action to prevent the sale of packaged marijuana products that resemble popular food brands.

Photo: Benzinga Edit; Sources: Elsa Olofsson and Jeremiah Lawrence via Unsplash