Indopedia All Things Marijuana
(Reuters Health) – Increased availability of potent marijuana products in France may be driving an increase in emergency room visits by intoxicated toddlers, a new study suggests.
Yearly admissions for accidental marijuana intoxication at pediatric emergency departments in France more than doubled between 2004 and 2014, researchers found.
“I was surprised by the increase of admissions in my unit for cannabis unintentional intoxication among toddlers and by the increase of severe presentation after children had eaten part or a entire cannabis resin stick,” said lead author Dr. Isabelle Claudet, who heads the pediatric emergency department at Hopital des Enfants in Toulouse.
Pediatricians in intensive care units were also starting to see toddlers who had ingested the concentrated marijuana product, Claudet told Reuters Health by email.
She and her colleagues write in the journal Pediatrics that France has the highest level of drug consumption in Europe even though marijuana is illegal in the country.
The most popular version of marijuana or cannabis in France is hashish, a concentrated resin often sold in small olive-shaped pellets.
The researchers analyzed data collected from…
