A BAD TRIP TO THE E.R.
Candy-like edibles sicken boy
An 11-year-old Staten Island boy was hospitalized after gobbling up THC gummies he mistook for candy at a Super Bowl party — and now his mom is urging the mayor to do something to prevent potential tragedies involving edibles.
Veronica Gill noticed her son, Ryan, “acting really strange” after returning home from a gathering at their friends’ house in New Springville, she told The Post.
“My son was sitting on the couch with me, and he started zoning out. At first, I thought he was pretending, because he opened his eyes wide and laughed. Then he would zone out for a minute again, then open his eyes wide and laugh,” she said.
Gill became concerned when the youngster’s laughter suddenly turned into cries for help — and his body started shaking.
“He started saying ‘Mom, I feel really weird.’ He was hearing voices. Then he started shaking . . . I thought he was maybe having a seizure.”
Panicked, the mother of three rushed Ryan to an urgent care center, where his racing heartbeat led doctors to call an ambulance to take him to the ER at Richmond University Medical Center.
After Ryan underwent a series of tests, including a CAT scan — “God forbid, they had to rule out a brain tumor,” Gill said — a urine test revealed he had ingested a considerable amount of THC in the last few hours.
“I was literally in shock. I couldn’t believe it,” Gill recalled.
Gill was further disturbed to find out that her son had taken the weedinfused gummies from a candy drawer at the “straight-laced” partythrowers’ home.
“When [my friend] went back to check the drawer after we told her what happened, she realized that the candy had THC in it. She called us hysterically crying,” Gill said.
Gill wasn’t angry with her friend, who told her, “I have no idea how the hell this got into my house.”
Instead, she fumed that packaging for edibles like the ones her son ate is allowed to resemble that of regular candy brands, and have only small THC warnings that buyers can easily miss.
“A lot of people have said, ‘How did she not know?’ And I tell them, ‘I wouldn’t know.’ People that use that stuff know. People that don’t, don’t even think to look [for THC warnings],” Gill said.
Ryan stayed the night in the hospital, resting and drinking fluids while the symptoms wore off, according to his mom.
The number of calls to poison-control centers for abuse and misuse of cannabis products in Americans ages 6 to 18 has skyrocketed.
Gill begged Mayor Adams to crack down on illicit cannabis sellers, especially those whose products are marketed to children.