There has been an increase in reports of children being poisoned by marijuana-laced snacks in Mississippi, which mirrors a nationwide trend.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Mississippi Poison Control Center has received an alarming number of complaints from parents whose children have been ill after eating marijuana-laced candies and chocolates they found at home.
Only two calls to the poison control center were recorded in the whole of 2019. There were 36 in total the year before, and 14 of them were minors.
The state of Mississippi exemplifies a pattern seen across the country. Research conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics between 2017 and 2021 revealed a 1,375% rise in the frequency of such encounters.
The study found that the number of incidents of children younger than 6 mistakenly consuming edible cannabis products increased from 207 in 2017 to 3,014 in 2021, with roughly a quarter of these young children being admitted to the hospital.
Dr. Marit Tweet, an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and co-author of the paper, noted that the number of instances has increased as more states have legalized medical and recreational cannabis products.
The legalization of medical marijuana in Mississippi has officials worried that this number will climb. Officials in Mississippi reported receiving four reports pertaining to children under the age of six in the past 10 days.
Dr. David Vearrier, a toxicologist and emergency medicine specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, warned that the effects can be fatal in youngsters.
According to Vearrier, “mental status depression and tiredness are the most typical side effects,” along with reduced respiration. “Acute agitation can play a role at times as well.”
Vearrier claimed that because children weigh less than adults, they are more vulnerable to the hazardous effects of edibles.
Two to six children who have eaten marijuana-laced sweets are treated each year at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, according to hospital officials.
Vearrier has stated his belief that children are gaining access to the edibles in the home, and that while adults may know the acceptable amount to take, a child may not.
Children frequently take “brownies and gummy candies loaded with marijuana,” according to Vearrier.
Edible marijuana products have increased in number and ease of access since 2014 when Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use for the first time.
Because of the state’s prohibition on marijuana, any treats containing the drug must be imported from another state or manufactured in secret.
