According to the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services, from 2018 to 2023, the number of marijuana poison control calls for children aged 5 and under increased by 2,300%:
2018: 7 calls
2019: 26 calls
2020: 57 calls
2021: 102 calls
2022: 125 calls
2023: 168 calls
This trend is being exacerbated by the emergence of child-friendly products and packaging. The marijuana industry is developing products that appeal to adolescents, such as edibles that are similar to traditional candies and chips. A toddler is unable to tell whether a gummy bear is a candy or an edible infused with a high dose of THC––the latter may send them to the hospital. The packaging also often uses bright colors and cartoons in an effort to appeal to children. These would entice curious toddlers to open the packages and eat the products, again not knowing they are psychoactive products. While the child is looking at that, they’re not noticing the small THC warning sign on these candy products. As a result, this increases the chances of accidental consumption, which can lead to a child becoming ill.
Notably, this trend has significantly worsened as Missouri has loosened its laws on marijuana. In 2018, before Missouri legalized and began selling so-called “medical marijuana,” there were only 7 marijuana-related poison control calls for children aged 5 or under. However, voters in November 2018 passed a ballot measure to legalize “medical marijuana,” with sales beginning in October 2020, which has evidently caused poison control calls to spike. This situation again worsened as Missouri voted to fully legalize marijuana in November 2022, with sales beginning in February 2023. This trend is expected to continue as more Missourians use and misuse marijuana.
As more states legalize and commercialize marijuana, Big Marijuana will continue to profit by making more edible products that appeal to children. States must ban the child-appealing marijuana products and require THC-containing products to be sold in child-proof packaging.
