More Kids Accidentally Ingesting Marijuana Following New Drug Policies

[The Straight Story]

At least 18 states allow medical marijuana, and the likelihood that more kids will encounter it at home only increases with Colorado and Washington’s recent legalization of recreational marijuana.

Beginning nearly four years ago, the federal government decided not to investigate those involved in using and distributing medical marijuana who complied with state laws; the more lenient stand spurred a boom in dispensaries and requests for personal use in states where it was allowed.

But around that time, doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado noticed kids were coming into the emergency room after accidentally ingesting marijuana. Were the cases directly due to the fact that young children were finding more marijuana at home, or were the doctors simply more aware of the exposures because of the more relaxed policies?

To find out, they analyzed emergency room visits for kids under 12 seen for poisonings and ingestions of any kind between 2005 to 2011, using the fall of 2009 — when new enforcement guidelines were issued — as a dividing line.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/28/more-kids-accidentally-ingesting-marijuana-following-new-drug-policies/

[TalkingDog]

1. And yet, not one died from overdose.

But that said.... parents need to keep medicine or recreational drugs in safe places.

[Recursion]

3. Thank you. Any medicine should be kept away from children

This is an odd study.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. How many kids accidentally ingest alcohol every year?

[Jesus Malverde]

4. It's not surprising since marijuana is now available for sale

As commercially packed edibles.

http://sparcsf.org/medicine/edibles

Is an indication of whats available.

I think the bigger story here is the death toll from all these accidents compared with children overdosing on Ethyl alcohol or even aspirin.

[msongs]

5. more kids "ingesting" bullets following new gun policies...and those are NOT accidental nt

[Half-Century Man]

6. 2 Points to address.

1: There were no reports of marijuana ingestions before the 2009 change in enforcement, and only 14 in 588 since(2.3% of cases). Marijuana has, in spite of being illegal, been one of the biggest cash crops for the State of California for 50 years. With the closure of medical marijuana clinics being lessened, new methods of ingestion are being developed as marketing devices. New methods which embrace the idea of not smoking.
Occam's razor says; the anti-smoking lobby is turning kids on to pot......no thats not it...Oh yeah, if you are a parent, you have to pay attention. Guard your pot and booze.

2: I pretty sure you can't get a lethal dose of THC. None of my unofficial research nor the research of my colleagues would indicate that. The most adverse effect is body odor after playing Halo (or go old school with Dungeons and Dragons) for 28 straight hours. That and getting arrested.