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Producers often add cannabis to foods such as chocolate or cakes (icon image)
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In the USA, the number of incidents in which children have accidentally consumed food containing cannabis has risen sharply since the increasing legalization of the drug: In 2017, just over 200 cases were recorded in which children up to the age of five had eaten such products , there were more than 3,050 in 2021, according to a study published in the journal »Pediatrics«.
Producers often add cannabis products, for example, to chocolate, biscuits or cakes, which is tempting for children.
Because of their low body weight, consumption by children can have serious health consequences.
While no death was registered in the five-year study period, eight percent of the affected children had to be treated in intensive care, and almost 15 percent had to go to the hospital.
Depression, coma and cardiac arrhythmias
The children affected were three years old on average.
Health consequences of accidental cannabis use included central nervous system (CNS) depression, coma, cardiac arrhythmias, and vomiting.
At the start of the study in 2017, cannabis use in the US was only legal in eight states and the capital Washington.
By May 2022, the number of states with legal cannabis use rose to 18 (now 21 out of 50 states have legalized possession).
The study authors suspect a connection with the sharp increase in the number of incidents of accidental hashish consumption by children.
They appealed to adults to only store hashish products in lockable, childproof containers and hide them.
Manufacturers should pack the products opaquely and print warnings about excessive consumption.
In Germany, too, the legalization of cannabis has long been under discussion.
The Federal Cabinet had already approved corresponding plans last October.
According to the decision, cannabis and the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) should no longer be legally classified as narcotics in the future.
The acquisition and possession of up to 30 grams of "pleasure cannabis" should go unpunished, private cultivation should be permitted to a limited extent, and sale to adults in "licensed specialist shops" and possibly also pharmacies should be made possible (read the plans in detail here).
bam/dpa
