More NJ Children Are Accidentally Eating Edibles, Center Finds

NEW JERSEY — It's a difficult thing to imagine: A child as young as one or two has accidentally eaten their parents' marijuana edibles. The baby is crying and hallucinating, interacting with things that aren't there.

That's exactly what Dr. Diane Calello has witnessed in her job as executive director of the NJ Poison Control Center. And now she wants to get a message out: More and more children across New Jersey are accidentally ingesting their parents' edible marijuana.

For the fourth year in a row, the Poison Control Center has seen an increase in calls of kids who accidentally consumed cannabis. This past July, they fielded 30 calls about it in one month alone, in kids ranging from 1 to 12 years old.

In 2021, the NJ Poison Control Center treated more than 150 children who accidentally ate edibles. The majority, 95 kids, were under 5 years old. The rest were 6 to 12.

"In most cases when the children are brought in, they seem a little drowsy and out of it. They do look kind of high. Because they are much smaller and weigh less, the effects of the drug are much more significant," said Dr. Calello. "Mostly, the children are lethargic. But I have seen children hallucinating (because of the marijuana). It's very frightening. We have a responsibility as a state to pay attention to this."

She said the treatment is usually to give the child fluids. However, they are nearly always admitted into the hospital overnight for observation, in case something more serious happens.

"It's rare, but children who have taken marijuana can have seizures. That's happened in less than five percent of the cases we've seen. They can stop breathing or their breathing slows so much they need to be put on a ventilator. And that is incredibly serious," she said.

Girl, 3, had a seizure

The Poison Control Center once had a case where a three-year-old toddler was brought into the ER after showing signs of strange behavior. Shortly after arriving, the child had a seizure. Doctors learned she had consumed a large amount of cookies containing cannabis.

There was another instance where a two-year-old toddler awoke with intense night terrors. Once awake, the toddler was drowsy and behaving as though she were “drunk." The child was evaluated in the ER, where it was discovered she had eaten cannabis gummies.

Neary all the incidents happened because adults left their marijuana gummies, candies, edibles or brownies lying out around the house, and children ate them.

"The parents usually admit they left their edibles lying within reach of the child," said Dr. Calello. "But other times they say they thought they had hidden it pretty well — 'I put it in a desk drawer; I put it in my medicine cabinet.' It's important for parents to know if they have edibles to really lock them up and store them away and out of sight."

New Jersey does not permit the sale of any marijuana product that looks like food, such as brownies, cookies or lollipops. But gummies can be legally sold. And parents can always bake goods themselves at home, using legally-purchased weed.

“Some edibles may be highly concentrated," warned Dr. Lewis Nelson, Emergency Medicine chair at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and chief of the Emergency Department at University Hospital.

No legal consequences if you call 911 should this happen

"I mostly feel sympathy for the parents. They usually are very embarrassed," said Dr. Calello. "But I never want someone to be so embarrassed they don't call for help. Many parents are afraid of legal consequences, but we never call child services for a child who accidentally ate edibles unless our doctors suspect there is other abuse going on."

Marijuana became legal in New Jersey in April of 2022; there are now 45 marijuana stores across the state, including recreational and medicinal. But new pot shops are opening all the time.

Public safety ads about the safe storage of edibles may start appearing in New Jersey bus shelters and elsewhere very soon.

The state "will be launching a broader safe use campaign in the fall," said a spokeswoman for the Cannabis Regulatory Commission, the government agency that regulates marijuana sales in New Jersey.

"Our labeling and packaging rules are written with safety in mind to avoid accidents like these. In New Jersey, cannabis products must be packaged to be resealable and without designs that might be attractive to children," said spokeswoman Toni-Anne Blake.

"Legal edibles in New Jersey are usually sold in opaque, child-resistant packages," agreed Dr. Calello. "But the illegal products are in brightly-colored packaging and sold under counterfeit brand names like Skittles. If something looks enticing, it's going to be opened by a child. Twenty five years in pediatric toxicology has taught me that accidents happen and they only take a second."

The NJ Poison Control Center is part of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and is located on the campus of University Hospital in Newark. However, the Center runs the Poison Help line (1-800-222-1222), which fields poison information and emergency calls from the public and healthcare professionals across the state.