More states and more countries around the world are legalizing cannabis products. Unfortunately, regulations surrounding things like packaging are lacking in many of these places. This leaves people vulnerable to mistaking them for regular products, especially children. This family learned this lesson the hard way when their 6-year-old daughter accidentally ate a marijuana gummy that sent her to the emergency room. (1)
6-Year-Old Accidentally Eats A Marijuana Gummy
Last month, Morgan McCoy and her family went to visit with their in-laws in Jacksonville, Florida, for the weekend. Among the group of adults, several of them were medical marijuana users who use the products for pain and anxiety management. At some point in the afternoon, McCoy left her daughter swimming with the adults and other children while visiting with her sister, who was visiting from out of town.
When her daughter went into the house looking for her clothes to change into, she went into the wrong room. While rifling through the drawers, she came across a bag of candy with just one candy left inside. As any six-year-old would, she ate it. The issue is that this was no regular candy: This was a marijuana gummy.
Pure Panic
When McCoy returned to the house, all the kids were taking a nap after their tiring afternoon by the pool, her daughter included. The parents all continued to relax and chat for another couple of hours until the owner of the marijuana gummy realized that the gummy was gone and that they were pretty certain McCoy’s daughter had eaten it.
“She couldn’t open her eyes, she was completely non-responsive and when I laid her down she kind of braced herself like she felt like she was falling,” she wrote on Facebook. “I turned around and yelled for my MIL to call 911… she asked if she was okay and as I turned back around she was on her knees seizing. I grabbed her and ran outside and just paced back and forth waiting for the ambulance to arrive (crying uncontrollably and crying out to God of course).”
McCoy and her husband spent the entire night in the hospital with their daughter, watching her breathing and vitals go up and down on the monitors all night. Thankfully, she is okay. McCoy is well aware, however, of how differently this situation could have turned out. She says that the product packaging is to blame, as the bag looks just like regular, delicious candy that any kid would want to eat.
“There needs to be regulation in place to keep companies from putting stuff like this on the market. We don’t have federal regulation over Marijuana because our government won’t legalize it.”
The McCoy’s Are Lucky
The McCoy family is very lucky that there was just one candy in that package. They are well aware of how differently this story could have ended up had the bag been full.
“ONE gummy contains 50mg of THC
One package contains 10 gummies
One Package has 500mg of THC…
500 MG
That is 50 times what I would take as an experienced THC consumer… imagine how terrifying this was for my child. I know I can’t stop thinking about it. Had there been more than ONE in that package, it is more than likely that I would not have my daughter today.”
She is now calling for stricter regulations surrounding marijuana gummy and other product’s packaging. After all, even products like ibuprofen and vitamins have child-proof packaging, so should marijuana products. This company, in particular, she says, is endangering minors.
“In my eyes, this company is guilty of not only negligence but Child endangerment on a national scale. And so is our country if we continue to stand idly by,” she wrote. “THC is a MEDICATION and needs to be packaged as such. Period.”
Morgan has started a petition at Change.org to Legalize THC- Childproof packaging and Remove Child Enticing Packaging From Market.
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Sources
- Morgan McCoy. Facebook. June 1st. 2021