According to a study, a staggering 71% of patients seen at B.C. Children Hospital for marijuana poisoning had used marijuana with other illicit drugs, booze, or medication.
Dr. Shelina Babul is the senior author of a study on the findings published this week in Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice.
According to Dr. Babul, who is also the director of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program, 71 per cent of patients seen at B.C. Children’s Hospital for cannabis poisoning in a three-year period before the drug was legalized had used it with other mood-altering substances.
The research includes data collected from the health records of 911 poisoning patients treated in the emergency department between January 2016 and December 2018.
Of the 911 poisoned, 114 patients had consumed cannabis, 29 per cent of them used only that drug, and their average age was 15.
According to the study, cannabis poisonings were reported most often on weekdays and in the majority of cases, youth smoked pot and drank alcohol in private residences with their friends.
“Measuring all this will allow us to really focus on health strategies, injury prevention priorities and public health policies to really work on harm reduction so individuals know how to spot the signs of cannabis-related harms,” Babul said.
Babul says parents should be talking with their children about the safe consumption of cannabis.
