Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jul 2016
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Jan Hoffman, The New York Times

MARIJUANA EDIBLES REACH KIDS' HANDS IN COLORADO

To a child on the prowl for sweets, that brownie, cookie or 
bear-shaped candy left on the kitchen counter is just asking to be 
gobbled up. But in states that have legalized marijuana for 
recreational use, notably Colorado, that child may end up with more 
than a sugar high.

A study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics says that in 
Colorado, the rates of marijuana exposure in young children, many of 
them toddlers, have increased 150 percent since 2014, when 
recreational marijuana products, like sweets, went on the market legally.

When children get their hands on the goodies, they can become 
lethargic or agitated, vomit and lose balance, triggering a hospital 
visit or a frightened call to a poison center. A handful of patients 
were admitted to intensive care units and intubated.

Rates had started climbing in 2009, when the federal government said 
it would not prosecute users and suppliers who conformed to 
Colorado's medical marijuana laws. Those patients would often ingest 
their prescription marijuana through baked goods.

When voters decided in 2012 to legalize marijuana for recreational 
use, researchers anticipated that rates of accidental exposure in 
children would rise.

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

The number of cases in the study, drawn from Colorado's poison 
control data and from one children's hospital, is modest. Between 
2009 and 2015, there were 163 cases documented by the poison control 
center and 81 patients evaluated at one hospital for pediatric 
marijuana exposure.

Even so, Roosevelt said, "While these ingestions are not common, the 
effects are significant and preventable." Some cases, she said, could 
result from secondhand smoke inhalation. The documentation of cause 
is still evolving.

During that period, marijuana-related child poison control cases in 
Colorado rose 34 percent each year, compared with a 19 percent annual 
increase in other states.

"The study is not an argument for or against legalization," said 
Robert MacCoun, a professor at Stanford Law School who writes about 
drug policy. "But it's an argument for smart regulation," he said, 
noting that many products are packaged not only in bright, alluring 
colors, but also in highly variable doses.

Nationally, at least 23 states have passed legislation allowing 
marijuana for medical use. Colorado and Washington have also 
decriminalized marijuana for recreational use, allowing products to 
be sold to people 21 and older. Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C., 
have also passed recreational-use laws.

Colorado, which received close to $588 million in revenue from 
recreational marijuana in 2015 (plus some $408 million from medical 
marijuana sales, which also include edibles), is struggling to 
contain the unintended consequences of its booming new industry. Last 
week, the town of Hugo ordered residents to stop drinking tap water 
because the municipal supply had tested positive for THC, the 
psychoactive chemical in marijuana.

As of 2015, Colorado has required marijuana products to be sold in 
childproof packaging. This month, the so-called gummy bear law went 
into effect: Edible marijuana may not be rendered in the shape of 
humans, animals or fruits, which had made them so irresistible to children.

Consistency of dosing and portion size remain problems. Dr. Kari 
Franson, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs 
School of Pharmacy, noted 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."

Hoffman writes for The New York Times.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom