As more states legalize marijuana, more children accidentally ingest THC-laced edibles

In January, a 12-year-old in New Jersey was taken to a hospital after eating a large quantity of what appeared to be Skittles candies but turned out to contain THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that produces the high sensation. In December, a 3-yearold was rushed to the hospital after eating candy that looked like Nerds Rope but was laced with THC. And in September, a young boy in Massachusetts ate so many THC-laced candies that emergency room doctors found about three grams of THC in his body, a huge amount even for an adult.

Poison control centers across the country say they have seen a spike in the number of children who have ingested THC after eat

ing their parents’ edibles, rising from just 19 cases in 2010, before recreational pot was legalized in any state, to 554 cases last year. About 400 of those cases were children under age 5.

Poison control officials attribute the rise in large part to a growing number of states having legalized marijuana. There are now 36 that allow marijuana for medical use - and 18 of them now allow adult recreational use or have recently approved laws to do so- with a number of others moving in that direction.

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, when a state begins allowing the sale of marijuana for recreational purposes, an uptick occurs in pediatric ER visits by children who have ingested THC-laden edibles.

For instance, when Massachusetts legalized marijuana in late 2018, there were just 52 cases. By 2020, that figure was 257, according to Massachusetts’ Poison Control Center. New Jersey legalized marijuana last November, and ERs have seen 85 children suffering the effects of ingesting pot already, 55 of whom were under 5, according to the N.J. Poison Control Center.

In Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012, 121 “marijuana exposures” involving edible marijuana products were reported to the Colorado Poison Center in 2019, 81 of which involved children up to age 18. Edible exposures in children ages 0 to 5 increased from 26 cases in 2016 to 56 in 2019, according to the poison center data.

“Any time a state goes to some form of enhanced cannabis access, whether they make medical marijuana legal or they legalize it for recreational use, those states experience an increase in edible exposures in kids,” says Diane Calello, executive and medical director of the N.J. Poison Control Center. “And that’s from the poison control centers in Colorado, in Washington, in Oregon. Every state that’s made it legal has seen this increase.”

She says that the increase is higher for states that legalized recreational marijuana use. Those allowing only medical use have fewer pediatric exposures, she says.

“It is difficult for anyone, especially children, to distinguish an edible marijuana product from food when the packaging is almost identical to common everyday products,” says Calello, questioning why edible products need to look like children’s favorite candies. “That’s just an accident waiting to happen.”

High levels of THC can lead to dangerous side effects in children, such as trouble breathing, loss of coordination, drowsiness and seizures. In severe cases, children have landed in an intensive care unit and had to be put on a ventilator, Calello says.

Some states have attempted to address the issue.

Colorado passed in 2017 a law that banned edibles in the shape of a human, an animal or a fruit. It also prohibited the use of the word “candy” or “candies” on marijuana products and required them to carry labels indicating their potency in boldface, a very large font size, and enclosed in a shape, such as a circle or square, or highlighted with a bright color.