Pubdate: Thu, 22 May 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold
Page: 6A

CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL SEEING RISE IN MARIJUANA INGESTION

This Year's Surge in Accidental Cases Involving Kids Is on Pace to
More Than Double the Total for 2013.

Aurora - The number of children coming into Colorado's largest
pediatric emergency department after accidentally eating marijuana is
on pace to more than double last year's total.

Michael DiStefano, the medical director of the Children's Hospital
Colorado emergency department, said nine kids so far this year have
been brought into the hospital for accidental marijuana ingestion. Of
those, seven were admitted to the hospital's intensive-care unit -
most commonly for what DiStefano said was either extreme sedation or
agitation. One of those kids had breathing problems that required a
respirator, DiStefano said.

Most of the children admitted are between 3 and 7 years old, DiStefano
said.

Last year, the hospital saw eight children in its emergency roomwho
accidentally ate marijuana. Between 2005 and 2013, only eight children
were admitted at the hospital for unintentional marijuana ingestion,
DiStefano said.

Although the numbers are still small compared with the total patient
load, DiStefano said the patients at Children's are just one slice of
what hospitals across the state are seeing.

"It is important to stop it before it becomes a huge problem," he
said.

DiStefano spoke Wednesday after Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill
attempting to do just that.

The new law, which was House Bill 1366, requires state regulators to
come up with rules that make edible marijuana products identifiable
even when they are out of their packaging. Lawmakers suggested the
products might all contain a unique stamp or be made in a particular
shape or color.

At Wednesday's bill signing, held in the lobby of Children's Hospital,
Rep. Frank McNulty criticized marijuana businesses for making edible
products that resemble candy or other treats - things that he said
would naturally appeal to kids.

"Marijuana edibles are dangerous in the hands of kids," said McNulty,
a Highlands Ranch Republican who was one of the new law's sponsors in
the legislature. "That has become all too familiar to the people who
work here at Children's Hospital."

The edibles bill was one of six bills Hickenlooper signed at
Wednesday's ceremony. Other bills put regulations on the amount of
marijuana concentrate that stores can sell, create programs designed
to reduce prescription-drug abuse and collect data on school
immunization rates.

Another bill creates a $10 million grant program to help scientists
research the medical efficacy and safety of marijuana.

Hickenlooper said the bills "are critical to our ongoing goal of
making Colorado the healthiest state in the nation and our constant
goal of protecting our children."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt