Children Are Exposed To Marijuana In Colorado, Study Finds

A candy, cookie, or a brownie on the kitchen counter is always a treat for a child who's on the hunt for something sweet. However, in states where marijuana used for recreation is legalized, it may not advisable to leave these edibles anywhere. A new study showed that marijuana edibles are getting into children's hands, many of them toddlers, in Colorado.

A new study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics observed that the rates of marijuana exposure in young children in Colorado have a 150 percent increase since 2014, the time when the use of recreational marijuana products was legalized.

It was reported that when children, mostly toddlers, get their hands on these treats, it causes them to be agitated, vomit and even lose steadiness. This triggers a hospital admission or a frightened name to a poison middle. Weednews.xyz also reported that there have been some cases where those who were admitted had to be placed in the intensive care unit, and sometimes even had to be intubated.

The number of people suffering had started to rise in 2009, when the federal government made it clear that they would not charge anyone (users and suppliers) who followed Colorado's medical marijuana laws. The New York Times reported that patients who often ingested prescription marijuana do it using baked products.

When it was decided in 2012 to legalize the use of marijuana for recreation, researchers have already anticipated that the rates of children accidentally being exposed to the substance would rise.

"But we were not prepared for the dramatic increase," said the senior author of the study, Dr. Genie E. Roosevelt, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Denver Health Medical Center.

Researchers found that the number of incidence taken from Colorado's poison control data and from one children's hospital were not a lot. They found that between the years 2009 and 2015, there have been 163 documented cases by the poison management middle and 81 patients evaluated at one hospital for pediatric marijuana exposure.

Even so, Dr. Roosevelt mentioned, "Whereas these ingestions usually are not frequent, the results are important and preventable." Some instances, she mentioned, may end result from secondhand smoke inhalation. The documentation of trigger continues to be evolving, westhawaiitoday.com reported.

There are at least 23 states in the whole United States that have passed legislation to legalize the use of medical marijuana. Colorado and Washington are two of the states that had decriminalized marijuana for recreational use, which allowed products to be sold to people 21 and older. Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C., have also passed recreational-use laws

However, Colorado, which gained about $588 million in revenue from recreational marijuana in 2015, is struggling to control some of the unintended effects of the booming industry. Just last week, in the town of Hugo, residents were asked to stop drinking water from the tap because the municipal supply had tested positive for THC which is the psychoactive component in marijuana.

As of 2015, the state of Colorado has required marijuana products to be sold in childproof packaging. And just this month, the so-called gummy bear law took into effect. The gummy bear law states: Edible marijuana may not be given in the shape of humans, animals or fruits, which would make them so inviting to children.

Consistency of dosing and portion sizing is still causing problems. Dr. Kari L. Franson, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy, observed that edible marijuana, such as candy bars or brownies, typically contain several servings. "But what kid doesn't eat an entire brownie?" she asked. "And you know the toddler doesn't read the label."