We have written repeatedly about how hospitals and emergency rooms are seeing more and more cases of accidental marijuana ingestion by children.
Because marijuana edibles often look like normal snack food, children mistake them as harmless. And because marijuana edibles often contain high concentrations of marijuana’s active ingredients, the effects of the marijuana are much more dangerous–particularly in small children, who seem to be most at risk.
Marijuana is now legal for either recreational or medical use in 24 states and the District of Columbia. But “edibles” containing marijuana are spreading everywhere, and kids are getting hurt from California to New York. Last year alone, poison control facilities across the country reported 4,000 kids and teens exposed to marijuana.
Another issue we have highlighted before is the dangerous method many marijuana users employ to extract marijuana’s active ingredients.
Volatile chemicals–like butane–are used to extract hash oil from marijuana. Earlier this month police say a New Mexico man caused an explosion when he lit a pipe to smoke marijuana, but accidentally ignited the butane gas police say he was using to extract hash oil.
Situations like this one are particularly dangerous for apartment dwellers; in November of 2013 Seattle news outlets reported an elderly Washington resident was killed after a neighbor’s apartment exploded as a result of a hash oil operation.
These stories underscore what we continue to say: Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.
