Originally published at: Young children accidentally eating weed rises 1,375% | Boing Boing
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This is why the slogan of the anti-prohibition side of the argument has always been “Legalise and Regulate”
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Yep, this will require regulation to end the practice of making kid-attractive edibles. Because adults just aren’t responsible enough to manage securely and safely storing them where kids won’t access them.
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Considering that it took decades to get cartoon cigarette ads like Joe Camel banned and candy-colored laundry pods are still a thing even after multiple child poisonings, I don’t have a lot of hope for any common-sense edibles regulations.
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there is a slight difference between the massive legal cigarette companies and the cannabis industry right now, though. The cannabis industry is federally illegal, and there’s product being made by large numbers of unrelated companies. (or is there big consolidation? I actually have no idea.)
I wonder if the regulation difficulties are thus ‘how do you regulate this market’ (weeeeeeed) and not ‘the market does not want to be regulated and will pay you and lie to stop it’ (tobacco)
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You gotta lock this stuff up in child proof containers - just like you would for your pills. And when your kids get older, maybe invest in something more substantial like a lockbox/safe like you would with fireams.
TBF - it is really, really hard to regulate “responsibility”. Regulate the purity and “is what it says it is” to make sure things are “safe” to use, sure.
I don’t want kids eating weed gummies, but I don’t think serious consequences if they do will really help anything, unless this is a symptom of broader abuse.
Hopefully education and awareness to lock things up will start a downward trend.
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On a corollary, lazy, irresponsible, and careless parents reportings are up a shocking 8354%.
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You can regulate packaging and presentation. I doubt that producers or consumers can be persuaded to forego cannabis that tastes like candy and comes in pretty packages, but those things could be made illegal.
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That might help some - but kids eat pills because they LOOK like candy, despite packaging. Weed gummies in any shape and packaging will probably still look like candy. Maybe if they were black you would assume they were black licorice, but some kids like that!
And then when it comes to editable like cookies and brownies - they are cookies and brownies.
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Usually I’m pretty suspicious of huge-percentage reporting. Big percentage changes usually mean tiny actual numbers.
In this case, going from 207 to 3054 cases is noteworthy. That’s a jump from “barely a blip” to “roughly the same number of children that die in cars each year”.
My guess that (in addition to candy-like packaging), now that people won’t be arrested if it’s found on the kitchen counter (kids present or not), it gets left out more. And anything left out around a pre-schooler that looks like candy is called “prey”.
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I don’t really see any reason why cannabis products need to be sold in the form of tasty treats at all, except that it sells well. I wonder how the rate of kids eating weed products compares to kids taking adults’ pills. I can easily imagine that watching adults eat chocolate or gummi bears that are forbidden to you would make those things more enticing than mere pills.
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I suspect the change in numbers may have a lot to do with parents being more willing to report the incidents to their kids’ pediatricians now that having marijuana products in the house isn’t the automatic ticket to jail that it once was.
Before state-level legalization “my kid got into my stash” would probably be grounds for immediate loss of custody if nothing else. How many parents would want to risk that?
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I was wondering that as well, and I’m pretty sure it’s a decent sized chunk of the incidents.
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Hell, many citizens have a problem properly securing firearms, let alone edibles.
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I think you’re on to something there.
When I was the toddler, we lived in a camper that didn’t have many secure hiding spots, and I indeed found the special brownies. My father had already spent 6 months in jail for a couple joints (before I was born). So, there was no way they were going to tell anyone what happened, until years later, when we lived in a whole different country.
Luckily no long term harm seemed to have occurred, but I was apparently funny and fun right up until I passed out for many hours.
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Some people don’t like to smoke and/or the smell of the smoke. So I see why there are editables. And I know people do things like mix it in with food, vs just treats.
So yeah, you’re right, an actual tasty treat is more enticing than a pill that tastes bad after you bite into them. You won’t be eating multiple pills, most likely. Similar to something like hard liquor vs whine coolers or something that tastes good.
So, yeah, anyway. If you have kids, be smart about it.
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We can’t have anything nice, or fun. As per the usual, there’s always some idiots who ruin it for the rest of us.
But these same adults are responsible enough to manage securely and safely store their children?
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I think you answer your own question there, but I would add that they sell well because they taste good.
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