As more states continue to legalize the use of medical and recreational marijuana, less traditional ways of consuming it has become more common. One of the most popular ways to use it is through edibles. However, with edibles comes a challenge, how to keep them away from kids.

Weed edibles are everyday food items containing marijuana and its constituent components like THC or CBD. The problem then becomes how to tell the edibles (especially pastry) apart from real food.

High number of kids

A study published in the Pediatrics journal shows over 4,000 calls to regional poison control centers from 2017 to 2019 regarding exposure of infants and children up to the age of 9 to marijuana; approximately half of these reports involved edibles.

As expected, the reports were twice as high in states where marijuana was legal than illegal. The frequency of the calls was also on a steep rise over the two years. 

The most common age for accidental marijuana poisoning was between the ages of 3 and 5. At this age, the child is old enough for the parents to get their eyes off for a minute, but not enough to understand that they should not eat the adults’ cookies.

It is also important to note that these were only the cases that were reported to the poison call centers. The number of cases that were not reported could be much higher. What’s more, some exposures could have gone unnoticed by the adults.

In the future, there will need to be stringent regulations on child-proof packaging and labeling of marijuana edibles. For the time being, however, parents should stop buying marijuana edibles that might appeal to kids in the same way they wouldn’t buy candy-shaped washing detergent. They also need to store all marijuana products securely, out of their kids’ reach.

Uncomfortable conversations

When parents visit their friends who leave edibles lying around with their kids, it might also be important to ask them to baby-proof the place. It might be an awkward conversation, but the kids’ safety would be worth it.