Pubdate: Tue, 28 Jul 2015
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver 24 hrs.
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters
Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Patrick Colvin
Page: 3

'HUGE' RISE IN CHILDHOOD POT POISONINGS

It looked like a chocolate smoothie, it tasted like a chocolate 
smoothie, but it was much more than just a chocolate smoothie.

A New Westminster woman ended up in the emergency room Saturday after 
unknowingly ingesting a quarter bottle of marijuana-laced smoothie.

"I started seeing flashing lights behind my eyeballs, it was 
constantly flickering even when I closed my eyes, my whole body 
started to feel very strange," said Eileen Edinger, who drank the 
marijuana smoothie after it was left in her fridge by a family member.

"In the emergency room I was becoming more and more delirious."

Edinger was in such an abnormal state that doctors were concerned she 
may have suffered a stroke. After feeling the effects of the smoothie 
for roughly four hours, Edinger began to regain her faculties.

While the container had subtle hints as to what it contained, nowhere 
on the bottle were the words marijuana, cannabis, or THC. Instead, 
the label listed BKBudder as a main ingredient.

Edinger has decided to use this unfortunate episode to speak out and 
join the public conversation about the dangers of poorly regulated 
edible marijuana products - especially with regards to children.

Dr. John Carsley, a medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal 
Health, shares those concerns. According to Carsley, there has been a 
"huge" rise in childhood poisonings in both Colorado and Washington 
since marijuana was legalized.

"Even in Colorado, where they try to be specific about the percentage 
of THC and how much is in each serving, it's still awfully hard to 
get it right," said Carsley. "We don't basically prepare any other 
psychoactive substance without some idea of how strong it is.

"Certainly for medication," continued Carsley,"you don't prepare 
medication in forms that are attractive to kids."

While marijuana consumption doesn't cause death directly, it can 
presumably cause hallucinations and psychosis that can cause people 
to put themselves in harmful situations, said Carsley. One example 
was published last week by the Center for Disease Control where a 
19-year-old Colorado man died after eating a marijuana cookie and 
jumping out of a four-storey window.

Saturday wasn't the first time local emergency rooms have had to deal 
with issues relating to edible marijuana. This year's 420 
celebration, an international marijuana event on April 20, saw over 
60 people treated at St. Paul's emergency room, the majority of whom 
had ingested marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom