NORFOLK, Va. — When kids get ahold of their parents' weed, it can lead to visits to the emergency room.
But a new state law appears to be helping with the issue. The law regulates the production, sale, and potency of THC in Virginia.
Health experts say they’re now seeing fewer kids accidentally stoned and needing help.
From High to Low
The number of children in Virginia needing to go to the hospital for cannabis exposure dropped 14% during the second half of 2023 compared to 2022.
During that same period, the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk saw a 16% drop in kids getting accidentally stoned and needing help.
Health experts, like Dr. Faiqa Qureshi at CHKD, note the decline coincides with a bipartisan law that took effect on July 1, 2023. It established health and safety standards for the retail sale of THC and hemp-based products.
Some of those are sold in packages that kids sometimes mistake for candy.
“The people that this law will really help save is the younger kids who get into this mainly because they’re ingesting accidentally. These substances look very similar to candy, to chips, to gummies," Dr. Qureshi said.
Dr. Qureshi said the symptoms can vary. For mild exposures, doctors might watch the kids for a couple of hours and then send them home.
But for the more severe ones:
“If they are having problems with low blood pressure or they’re not breathing as well, they’re not responding as well, they’re having a seizure, then those we have to admit, we have to give them IV therapy, we have to intubate them, we may have to give them medicine for their blood pressures. That would be the more severe exposures," Dr. Qureshi explained.
Dr. Qureshi said it’s also important to educate parents about the dangers of keeping marijuana around kids and for those who use it, to lock up their stash.