Colorado pot accidents spur call for childproof packaging Robin hackett, owner
of botana care in northglenn, colo., putting medical marijuana suckers into a
sample zipperlock baggie. (Joe amon/the denver post) From early 2005 to late
2009, children's hospital colorado had exactly zero emergencyroom visits by kids
who had ingested marijuana.In the following two years, when medical marijuana
became legal in colorado and federal officials backed off prosecution, it had
14. Pioneering studies of emergency room charts by colorado doctors show looser
pot laws leading to childhood poisonings, often ristianlbtinaussuressoldes from mistakenly
eating tantalizing"Edibles' like gummy worms or brownies. Those doctors are now
helping lead the charge for mandatory safety packaging as colorado gears up for
even broader legal sales of pot with recreationalmarijuana stores. "We've seen a
dramatic increase in pediatric exposure, ' said dr.George wang, a children's er
doctor who also works with denver health's rocky mountain poison and drug
center. Calls about potential marijuana exposure at all ages have doubled since
2009 at the poison center. Safety packaging, as in other medicines,"Is a
supplement to careful parenting that has been shown to work,' said wang's
colleague, dr.Michael kosnett. "There are solutions available right now.' And
the marijuana christian
louboutin platforms sale industry agrees, up to a point. Many industry
members favor sending goods out the store door under tamperproof seal.But they
would rather not break each individual joint or candy into a hightech, lockable
bag whose cost up to $7, even in bulk might approach the price of the brownie
inside. Have to buy so much tamperproof packaging that people will just make it
themselves at home,' said robin hackett, coowner of botana care, a
medicalmarijuana store in northglenn. "The challenge is with a pound of butter
and some cannabis, anybody can make edibles.' Hackett and other members of the
medical marijuana industry group say lockboxes and larger locking bags that
buyers can use to transport larger purchases home should solve most of the
safety problems. Breaking everything down into smaller tamperproof bags is a
landfill problem and unnecessary expense, hackett said.Botana care counsels
patients with children about safety, and keeps track of who has kids as a
reminder. "Unfortunately, we can't christian louboutin homme write laws
around dumb, ''"She said. None of the accidentally poisoned children has died,
wang and kosnett said. There are serious medical consequences for small
children, though, even while marijuana advocates say an adult"Overdose' of pot
is nearly impossible. Prescribed dosages of thc, the active ingredient in
marijuana products used to control nausea from chemotherapy, is between 4 and 12
milligrams for children ages 2 to 4, based on body surface area.Some"Edibles'
have 300 milligrams of thc, kosnett said. The researchers say individual safety
packs would be best, but the current recommendation of all items leaving the
store in one secure package is"Better than nothing. " Because there is no clear
reporting category for marijuana poisonings, doctors have to cull through files
to count cases.Presbyterian/st.Luke's, which operates rocky mountain hospital
for children, said it does not track similar cases. The cases studied at
children's included decreased levels of consciousness and breathing
trouble.Children can also vomit from ingesting too much of a strong substance
and aspirate the vomit. The median age in the 14 patients was 3 years, and the
range was 8 months to 12 years, according to an abstract of the research
published in the journal clinical toxicology. Childingested pot is also
dangerous because er doctors aren't looking for it as a cause of any symptoms
they see, wang said.That can lead to invasive and expensive diagnostic efforts,
such as a spinal tap or ct scan, if parents are embarrassed or scared to mention
the true cause. "When children get admitted to the icu, that's serious, '
kosnett said.Symptoms may appear similar to meningitis, for example. Safety
packaging and parental prevention should be noncontroversial, said dr.Robert
brockmann, president of the colorado academy of family physicians, especially as
newly legal recreational use will greatly expand the supply. "None of that
information is being disseminated when it's dispensed,' brockmann said. "It's
like liquor or prescription medications, or anything else you don't want your
kids to get into.' Such measures have cut pediatric poisonings in various
categories by 40 to 90 percent over the decades, he said.
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