Dr. George Sam Wang of Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado looked at visits to his hospital\u2019s emergency department from 2005 to 2011. Before 2009, there were no cases of marijuana exposure in kids under age 12, but the hospital saw 14 pot exposure cases in kids in the last three years of the study.<\/p>\n
Although the numbers are small and were collected from just one hospital, Wang concludes that medical legalization has caused \u201ca significant increase in the exposure of young children to marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article was published online Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is the first study of its kind to evaluate the effects on children of changes in state laws that make marijuana legally available.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences of marijuana exposure in children should be part of the ongoing debate on legalizing marijuana,\u201d Wang and two co-authors wrote.<\/p>\n
The study ended before Colorado voters passed Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. The state has had legal medical marijuana since 2000, but it only became popular in 2009 when the Obama Administration announced it would not prosecute most medical pot cases.<\/p>\n
Marijuana ingestion can cause serious problems for young children. Eight of the patients in Wang\u2019s study were admitted to the hospital for treatment, including two who were sent to the intensive care unit. One 5-year-old boy had to go to the ICU for breathing problems after he ate his grandfather\u2019s marijuana.<\/p>\n
Edible marijuana products like cookies or candy are enticing to children, the study said. Eight of the 14 patients had consumed medical marijuana \u2013 and seven of them had taken edibles.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysicians, especially in states that have decriminalized medical marijuana, need to be cognizant of the potential for marijuana exposures and be familiar with the symptoms of marijuana ingestion,\u201d Wang wrote.<\/p>\n
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana.<\/p>\n
Doctors from Children\u2019s Hospital testified frequently to the committees that drafted marijuana laws this year, said Mike Elliott, head of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group. Elliott helped craft the state regulations, and he said the committees listened to the doctors and required childproof packages and a 100-milligram limit of THC in edible marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole idea with that potency limit was to help ensure the naive user (including little kids) doesn\u2019t overdo it,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n
Most marijuana proponents think childhood exposure is a serious issue, said Brian Vicente, a primary author of Amendment 64.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe by moving this product behind the counter\u201d \u2013 and out of the black market \u2013 \u201cwe\u2019ll find it much easier to prevent access by teens,\u201d Vicente said.<\/p>\n
But he also urged a sense of perspective. There are no reports of fatalities from marijuana overdoses, while smoking, drugs and alcohol have killed untold numbers of people, he said.<\/p>\n
Wang\u2019s study points out that although marijuana proponents suggest the drug is safer than alcohol, only two children under age 12 showed up in the Children\u2019s Hospital emergency room for alcohol ingestion in the same time that the 14 kids who had ingested pot went to the hospital.<\/p>\n
Despite the increase after 2009, pot is far from the most common type of poisoning in kids. In the same period that 14 kids went to Children\u2019s Hospital for marijuana, 48 were taken there for ingesting acetaminophen, an over-the-counter pain reliever.<\/p>\n
In an editorial that accompanied Wang\u2019s study, Drs. William Hurley and Suzan Mazor note that the potency of marijuana has greatly increased the last 40 years, from around 2 percent THC \u2013 the psychoactive ingredient \u2013 to about 8 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk of significant toxic reactions from exposures is more likely today than in the past,\u201d the editorial said.<\/p>\n
Hurley and Mazor call for the use of child-resistant packaging and for an education campaign through the media and doctors to change attitudes about the seriousness of childhood exposure to marijuana.<\/p>\n