On Thursday the Centers for Disease Control released a report showing the number of children, teens, and young adults sent to the emergency room due to marijuana exposure increased from 2019 to 2022.
The report revealed that marijuana-related ER visits surged more than 200% among children under age 11 during that time.
The CDC report noted,
Among persons aged ≤10 years [10 and under], cannabis-involved ED [emergency department] visit rates during the pandemic far exceeded those preceding the pandemic; these findings are consistent with recent National Poison Data System data demonstrating that from 2017 to 2021, cases of edible cannabis ingestion among children aged <6 years increased by 1,375%, with statistically significant increases in toxicity and severity during the COVID-19 pandemic relative to those observed 2 years earlier.
The CDC’s findings track with other data that we have seen in recent months.
In December, researchers at the Oregon Health and Sciences University found poison center calls due to children exposed to marijuana rose 245% from 2000 – 2020.
Thursday’s CDC report and the OHSU study from December both highlighted the serious threat that marijuana edibles — food or candy laced with marijuana or its psychoactive chemicals like THC — pose to children.
That’s significant, because last month Pulaski County Circuit Judge Morgan “Chip” Welch issued a decision nullifying 27 laws the Arkansas Legislature has enacted since 2017 concerning so-called “medical” marijuana in the state.
The ruling struck down restrictions designed to protect children from dangerous marijuana edibles and marijuana advertising.
Without laws like those, marijuana exposure could send more children to the E.R. in Arkansas.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
