Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jul 2016
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

MORE KIDS IN ER DUE TO MARIJUANA

Accidental Consumption Leading to Hospital Trips

Colorado's laws on labeling and child-resistant packaging have been 
unable to stop an increase of young kids ending up in the emergency 
room after accidentally consuming marijuana, according to a new study 
published online Monday in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics.

The study - led by a doctor at the University of Colorado Anschutz 
Medical Campus - found that emergency room visits and poison-control 
calls for kids 9 and younger who consumed pot in Colorado jumped 
after recreational marijuana stores opened. About twice as many kids 
visited the Children's Hospital Colorado emergency room per year in 
2014 and 2015 as did in years before the opening of recreational 
marijuana stores, according to the study. Annual poison-control cases 
increased fivefold, the study found.

"We were expecting an increase," said Dr. Sam Wang, the study's lead 
author. "As far as the poison center, we were a little surprised at 
the amount of the increase."

The overall numbers, though, are still relatively low and account for 
a small fraction of all accidental exposures.

Sixteen kids age 9 and younger went to the Children's ER for 
marijuana in 2015, and, even with the post-legalization jump, 
marijuana exposure cases account for about six out of every 1,000 
emergency room visits for ingestions, according to the study. 
Marijuana-related poison-control calls for kids 9 and younger make up 
about two of every 1,000 calls, the study reports.

"Pharmaceuticals and household products still account for most 
toddler exposures because they are much more common and available in 
the household," the study's authors wrote. "However, as marijuana 
becomes more available, exposures may continue to increase."

Particularly troubling to the researchers is that these kinds of 
accidental exposures to marijuana were exactly what lawmakers and 
regulators hoped to prevent when adopting rules on packaging and 
labeling. Colorado requires that marijuana be sold in resealable 
child-proof containers. Rules soon to go into effect will mandate 
that edible marijuana products be stamped with a special symbol, and 
a law passed this year will eventually ban marijuana edibles in the 
shapes of animals or fruit.

Wang said he expects the symbol will do little to curb accidental 
ingestions by young kids - the median age of patients at both the 
Children's ER and in poison-control cases was about 2 years old, well 
before reading age - but he said the ban on certain shapes that are 
appealing to kids could help.

"I think we need more evidence to figure out what is the most helpful 
way to do this," he said.

The study's authors found that edibles accounted for almost half of 
all accidental ingestion cases seen at Children's Hospital, with a 
parent being the most likely source of the marijuana. Almost half the 
exposures in 2014 and 2015 involved cannabis purchased at a 
recreational marijuana shop, according to the study.

"Ingestion of edible products continues to be a major source of 
marijuana exposures in children and poses a unique problem because no 
other drug is infused into a palatable and appetizing form," the authors wrote.

Most of the time, the problems caused by these ingestions are minor, 
according to the study. At Children's, the median length of a visit 
is 11 hours, though about a third of kids are admitted into inpatient 
care or even the intensive-care unit. One 3-year-old at the hospital 
had to be intubated because of breathing problems brought on by the 
ingestion, and an 8-month-old "received continuous positive pressure 
for respiratory insufficiency."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom