A recent study has shown something alarming that many parents should pay attention to.
According to the study, the number of children who were admitted into emergency rooms for unintentional marijuana intoxication saw a 133% growth in the country of France in the last eleven years.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics this week. Cannabis is illegal in France, but it has the highest rate of marijuana use in Europe, according to the lead author of the study, Dr. Isabelle Claudet, who is a pediatric emergency physician in Toulouse
She said, “And that means we are facing an increase in emergency admissions of marijuana intoxication and an increase in severe symptoms seen in children.”
Claudet and her team analyzed te number of children in France under the age of 6 that were admitted to pediatric emergency departments because of unintentional cannabis intoxication and the number of cannabis-related calls involving children to French poison control centers.
The researchers found that from the years 2004 to 2014, 235 children had been admitted to ERs with cannabis intoxication. The number of calls to poison control centers related to exposure to the plant had seen a growth of 312% during this time.
“THC concentration in cannabis products has increased from 9% in 2004 to 20% in 2014,” she said. “I believe that’s why we’re facing more adverse effects in children.”
According to Claudet, to decrease the number of children visits to the ER could be done by decreasing the amount of THC in cannabis through regulation.
“We have to also warn consumers and parents that it could be very dangerous for children to eat such products. Because usually, parents think it’s not very harmful because they’re smoking it, and it relaxes them. But if a child ingests one stick or ball, they can become comatose.”
