Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2013
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Melissa Healy

MORE KIDS INGEST POT ACCIDENTALLY

Broad Medical Marijuana Use Creates a New Risk for Children, a Study Finds

As legalized marijuana appears in an increasing number of American 
homes, so too does evidence of a dark side: accidental ingestion of 
pot and pot-infused food by young children.

The results can be frightening to such children, who often suffer 
anxiety attacks when they start to feel unexpected symptoms of being 
high: hallucinations, dizziness, altered perception and impaired thinking.

And the trend should prompt equal concern among adult caregivers and 
public health authorities, since ingestion of highly potent marijuana 
by young children can suppress respiration and even induce coma, 
according to a study published online this week in JAMA Pediatrics.

"You talk to people about the secondary consequences of marijuana 
legalization and they say, 'Oh, I never thought of that,' " said Dr. 
Jeffrey Galinkin, a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at the 
University of Colorado-Denver, who was not involved in the study. 
"This is a public health disaster that's just waiting to happen."

The JAMA Pediatrics study was conducted by researchers from the Rocky 
Mountain Poison and Drug Center and Children's Hospital in Denver.

Team members tallied visits to the center's emergency department for 
accidental marijuana ingestion between Oct. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2011 
- - a period during which there was a sharp increase in medical 
marijuana cards issued to Coloradans, as the U.S. Justice Department 
relaxed its policy of enforcing federal laws against marijuana in 
states that allowed its use.

Doctors confirmed that 14 children 12 years old or younger had 
accidentally eaten pot. In nearly five years leading up to the study, 
the same emergency department had seen not a single lab-confirmed 
case of marijuana ingestion by a young child.

The children affected ranged from 8 months to 12 years old. Though 
one child was discharged from the emergency department without delay 
and five were released after observation, eight were admitted to the 
hospital - two to pediatric intensive care.

Eight of the children ingested marijuana when they ate food products 
- - cakes, brownies, candies, drinks and other treats - made with the 
drug. And seven of the food-based cases involved medical marijuana, 
which packs an intense dose of marijuana's active ingredient - 
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

Despite the recent legalization of pot for recreational purposes in 
two states - Colorado and Washington - and legalization of medical 
marijuana in a growing number of states, there are no requirements on 
states' books that marijuana products be dispensed in childproof 
containers, nor that packaging bear warnings about the products' 
effects if accidentally ingested by children.

In an accompanying editorial, Drs. William Hurley and Suzan Mazor, 
who were not involved in the primary study, called for stepped-up 
tracking of accidental marijuana ingestion and suggested that 
dispensaries and retail establishments selling marijuana and 
marijuana-infused food products warn customers about the dangers to children.

Establishments could consider using child-proof containers as well, 
wrote Hurley, a physician with the Washington Poison Center, and 
Mazor, an emergency department pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Galinkin said that accidental ingestion was only one of many medical 
effects that were not thought through as medical marijuana use has expanded.

Standards defining impairment for drivers under the influence of 
marijuana have not been set, he said, and the safety of prescribing 
opioid painkillers to patients who smoke marijuana for pain is not 
well understood.

For adolescents at risk of developing schizophrenia, Galinkin cited 
strong evidence that early marijuana use accelerates the age of the 
first symptoms of psychosis.

In a state with a weak mental health infrastructure, surging 
marijuana use among teens could be catastrophic, he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom