Hospitalization rates for accidental cannabis poisoning in kids increased two times more in provinces that legalized edibles: study – CTV
Aug. 25, 2022
Three provinces that legalized cannabis edibles in early 2020 saw an increase in accidental cannabis poisonings among children aged 0-9 that was more than double that of Quebec, where edibles are prohibited, according to a new Canadian study.
Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia saw a 7.5 times increase in the rate of cannabis poisonings among young children after approving the sale of cannabis edibles compared to pre-legalization rates from 2015, while Quebec hospitalizations only increased threefold in the same time period.
“The goal of the study was to see how these hospitalizations for cannabis poisoning had changed following legalization of cannabis,” Dr. Daniel Myran, lead author of the study, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
“And what we saw in our study is that the policy choices that were made by the different provinces had a very large impact on the changes in cannabis poisonings.”
