Don’t Be That Adult: Kids Accessing Cannabis

Personal responsibility and caution are better than misinformed panic and fear.

Back in June 2021, four young Michigan kids accidentally ingested marijuana edibles. After a youth baseball game, a bag of “Stoner Patch’’ gummies mistaken for Sour Patch kids were handed to the kids. The kids, unaware that the gummies were a cannabis product, consumed them. It is a little unclear how the gummies specifically got mixed up with the regular candy. Nevertheless, they got into the hands and systems of these kids.

As the cannabis industry booms and consumption becomes more socially acceptable, cases of kids ingesting products have risen. Yet according to general consensus, cannabis certainly isn’t for kids. It’s for adults.

So how are kids accessing and ingesting cannabis products? And why, both socially and medically, is cannabis not a good idea for youth?

Most people would probably question the benefits and safety of kids getting high, and rightly so. What do research and science say about underage cannabis consumption? Is it more dangerous for young kids than adolescents? I wanted evidence-based answers rather than assumptions based on prevalent, uninformed fears around cannabis.

The stigma we’ve experienced since the Nixon years has caused unnecessary fear of cannabis. (Though, Nixon did commission a scientific panel who concluded that the “potential harm and use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior.”) Most frustrating, that stigma contributes to anti-legalization panic based on misinformation about the substance.

As I read the news article on what I will refer to throughout this piece as the Stoner Patch incident, I had questions:

Why is cannabis dangerous for kids?

Why is cannabis best for only adults?

Most importantly, how much is the fight to end prohibition dependent on the responsibility of adult cannabis users?

Here’s what I found based on research and consultation.

1. Take proactive precautions to prevent kids from accessing cannabis. But if they ingest it, they will probably be ok.

Contrary to what many of us were told in anti-drug programs as youth, cannabis is safer than most recreational drugs. But its effects are more severe on young kids’ systems than adults. For example, children are smaller. When a child ingests cannabis, the ratio of THC per pound of body weight is much larger than it would be if an adult ingested the same amount. Put simply, the effect of a 60 pound child ingesting 20 mg of cannabis is bound to be far more intense than the effect on a 180 lb adult.

It’s also important to think about how and why a child might accidentally ingest cannabis. The likelihood of a child ingesting what they perceive as delicious “candy” or baked goods and unintentionally popping some edibles is much greater than an 8 year old patiently rolling a joint or perfectly packing a bowl in that cool glass contraption.

When a child ingests cannabis, they could experience symptoms ranging from nothing to drowsiness, slow breathing, and confusion. Dr. Eliisa Bojanic, MD, notes that kids can “get a bit anxious or a bit sleepy, and sometimes will have nausea and vomiting.” However, Dr. Bojanic explains edible cannabis can also “depress respiratory drive and cause difficulty breathing. In rare circumstances, effects can cause coma.”

(Important: Cannabis induced coma in children is indeed extremely rare.)

While the Stoner Patch news story did not detail the kids’ symptoms after ingesting the edibles, it does include they were taken to the hospital. I picture caring, concerned parents seeking medical care for their potentially hazy, anxious, and nauseous children. No one should argue with a parent’s decision to seek medical confirmation that their child will be ok.

Yet, “every kid who accidentally ingests [cannabis] does not require medical attention,” Dr. Bojanic points out. “However, I usually advise that if parents are at all concerned, it’s better to get checked out just in case.”

If a kid accidentally gets high, take a moment and assess the severity of their symptoms. A panicked rush to the hospital may be unnecessary. Maybe all a caregiver needs to do is help their child do what responsible adults do when they experience a bad high: lay down, drink water, eat, breathe, do comforting things, wait it out, and keep in mind that it will pass. (We didn’t learn that in our drug education, did we?)

“One time ingestion is very unlikely to have any long term effects,” Dr. Bojanic asserts. Though, we are still learning about these long-term effects of marijuana exposure in children. In the meantime, I think it’s fair to call anyone letting children access cannabis regularly and without medical guidance incredibly irresponsible.

2. Cannabis isn’t a great idea for teens, and long-term effects can be serious.

While teens’ bodies are more akin to adults and could handle one-time ingestion far better than children, it’s not a good idea for teens to use regularly.

Unfortunately, moral reasons have often been used to discourage teens from “smoking doobies.” The parent movement of the 70s and 80s worried that drug use would turn kids into unmotivated, crime-committing citizens. Yet, how effective was that in reducing teen cannabis use? Likewise, does telling teens that cannabis is “bad” compel them to use less, with little concrete evidence as to why?

If we’re going to discourage teens from using cannabis, let’s use science-based reasons. The primary argument for why teens shouldn’t use cannabis is physical health. Like children’s brains, adolescent brains are still developing. While teens have used cannabis for decades, we now have evidence that regular cannabis use in teens leads to long term negative effects. Dr. Bojanic stresses that “regular use for children and adolescents has been clinically linked to long term effects such as decreased neural connectivity, suicidality, and cognitive impairment.”

Another reality is that teens are not adults.They’re learning to be adults. Adults can choose to use cannabis either recreationally or medically because they are more emotionally and psychologically mature than kids (or so we hope). Recreational decisions to use include taking a break from the responsibilities that come with being an adult and to just have fun. Medically, adults are more aware of their bodies and health, and can choose what they want as treatment.

To boil it down, being an adult means you possess full autonomy on decisions about what you put in your body and how to experience leisure.

3. Parents and caregivers: Buy from the legal market and secure your stash.

“It’s about personal responsibility.” What a serious nugget of truth dropped by Attorney Matthew Abel, as quoted in the WXYZ news article.

First of all, the article gives the impression that the edibles ingested by the kids in the Stoner Patch incident were acquired from a non-licensed, non-regulated business. Licensed cannabis production businesses must differentiate their products from anything that could appeal to kids. It’s a legal standard.

Yet these Stoner Patch gummies obviously looked pretty similar to the Sour Patch candy intended for the baseball game kids. Lesson? According to law, buy from “compliant, licensed businesses.”

Most importantly, especially if kids are in your environment, secure your stash! Keep your legally purchased weed stashed on a very high shelf, in a discrete container, or locked in a medicine cabinet. (Check out these savvy time-and-combination locked containers.)

Treat your stash as any other medication–kept out of reach of children.

4. Don’t use kids as pawns in anti-legalization rhetoric.

Panic over kids accessing cannabis is not a reason to prevent legalization, nor preach false truths about cannabis itself.

The parent movement in the 70s and 80s was convinced that drugs would damage children and further damage American society. The movement demonized drugs and drug culture, and all drugs were treated as equally deleterious substances. In turn, that attitude has left us with a stigma that weed is scary and dangerous. Which, compared to other substances such as alcohol and tobacco, could not be further from the scientific truth.

As I researched the uptick in reports of kids ingesting cannabis, I noticed many articles utilized misinformed, panicky language that contributes to the current lingering social stigma around cannabis. Words such as “poison,” “dangerous,” and “disturbing.” Those words are red herrings. They imply that accidental THC ingestion in children is worthy of panic, as opposed to a typically minor medical issue. This language manipulates the public’s uninformed assumptions that cannabis is more dangerous than data reveals it to be.

In reality, kids accessing cannabis falls to adult responsibility, not the big, bad (*now state legal) cannabis companies trying to lure kids to the “dark side.” Kids aren’t at the hands of a vicious drug industry–they’re at the hands of some adults who don’t take responsible precautions.

And it is unwise to base legislation on the most irresponsible adults.

Imagine if we did this with alcohol (a very common comparison when analyzing attitudes and laws around other substances).

On most beer bottles, it says “Drink responsibly.” But how many people actually drink responsibly? Alcohol is a leading factor in global deaths. Is liquor distribution as heavily regulated as cannabis businesses? No.

We cannot legislate to the most irresponsible people. If we did so for alcohol, we’d be back in Prohibition faster than you could say “Reefer Madness.”

To summarize, don’t use kids as pawns. Instead, let’s advocate for personal adult responsibility and caution rather than panic and paranoia.