Kids sent to hospital after eating cannabis ‘treat’

The mother of a nineyear-old boy says packaging that depicts highly potent cannabis as a “treat” led her son and several classmates at a Halifax school to consume them and become violently ill earlier this week.

Katrina MacDonald, a health-care worker, said in an interview Friday her son threw up multiple times and had to be rushed to the emergency department, while the mother of another child — who spoke on the condition of anonymity — said her child was taken to intensive care for treatment before stabilizing.

MacDonald said she saw four children in hospital due to ingesting the edible, while Halifax police have said five children are believed to have swallowed the product.

The school sent MacDonald an image of the package of “strawberry/grape” edibles branded as “Nerd Bites” that was found at the school after the children became ill.

It has a picture of brightly coloured candies on a green, grassy background, and in small letters underneath indicates to “keep out of the reach of children.”

The 43-year-old mother of three said her son and three other children ate the cannabis after they were offered “gummies” by a classmate who had brought the package to school.

MacDonald says the packaging is dangerous for children her son’s age. “It looks eerily similar to a package of treats that any parent would buy for their child,” she said.

Dr. Bruce Crooks, a pediatric oncologist/hematologist at the IWK children’s hospital in Halifax, said the amount of cannabis the children were reported to have consumed — about 200 milligrams each — is roughly 20 times the amounts an adult might take as a recreational dose.

The Canadian Press was unable to reach the manufacturer of Nerd Bites.

The Canadian Paediatric Society has warned since the legalization of cannabis that the number of young children needing medical care after ingesting the drug has been on the rise.