STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — An 11-year-old Staten Island boy was rushed to the hospital after mistakenly consuming cannabis gummies at a Super Bowl party, according to a report from The NY Post.
The boy’s mom is now advocating for the mayor to address potential dangers of candy-resembling edibles packaging.
Shortly after returning home from a Super Bowl party in New Springville, Veronica Gill noticed her son, Ryan, was “acting really strange,” according to the New York Post.
“My son was sitting on the couch with me, and he started zoning out. At first, I thought he was pretending because he opened his eyes wide and laughed. Then he would zone out for a minute again, then open his eyes wide and laugh,” Gill told The Post.
“He started saying ‘Mom, I feel really weird.’ He was hearing voices. Then he started shaking … I thought he was maybe having a seizure,” Gill said, according to the report.
She brought her son to an urgent care center, where doctors called an ambulance after observing Ryan’s rapid heart rate.
He was transported to Richmond University Medical Center’s (RUMC) emergency room where he underwent several tests including a urine test, which came back positive for THC, revealing that Ryan had ingested a large, unspecified, amount of THC in the last few hours.
“I was literally in shock. I couldn’t believe it,” Gill said.
Ryan accessed the weed-infused gummies at the home of the Super Bowl party throwers’ house.
The boy stayed overnight at RUMC as the symptoms subsided, according to his mother, and has recovered without issue.
Gill told The Post she was not angry at the friend who apparently noticed the “candy” had THC in it after double-checking her drawer when she heard about Ryan’s trip to the hospital and called her “hysterically crying.” The friend said she was unaware how the THC-laced candy got into her home.
Gill claimed that her friend was a “victim of this packaging” that she believes closely resembles candy.
“A lot of people have said ‘How did she not know [they were edibles]?’ And I tell them, ‘I wouldn’t know.’ People that use that stuff know. People that don’t, don’t even think to look [for THC warnings],” she told The Post.
There is rising concern about the danger of children accessing and ingesting THC-infused products.
The Upstate New York Poison Center issued a warning to the public last year on cannabis-safety.
Data from the center shows from 2019 to 2022 calls increased sixfold for individuals ages 19-years-old and younger who had consumed marijuana edibles. For children five under the under, the increase is almost ninefold if you look at data from the same data, experts said.
In young children, marijuana can cause changes in blood pressure and heart rate, severe tiredness, trouble breathing and even coma, according to the center.
In December, Mayor Eric Adams vowed to crack down on illegal weed businesses, with a particular concern about those with packaging closely resembling children’s cereal and candy.
Mayor Eric Adams has called for some modifications to the state’s marijuana laws, but in the meantime, the city has tried to tamp down the illicit weed market.
“When we legalized marijuana, some people didn’t get the actual memo. They believe that you can just start selling it openly and there’s a clear plan on how you could legally sell cannabis,” Adams said in October. “We are going to address it.”
Gill implored the mayor to take action.
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H/T: www.silive.com
