Fact Check: Are marijuana edibles really poisoning our kids?

A rather alarming press release from the Washington Poison Center is making rounds in the news that is causing many to be concerned with what sounds like a shocking increase in child exposure to marijuana via edibles.

In fact, the press release is titled, “Increase in edible marijuana intoxication among King County children” and claims:

…the number of marijuana edible intoxications reported in King County in 2014 was 73 percent higher than in 2013, and there is an upward trend in 2015. Children 5 years of age and younger accounted for roughly 30 percent of all edible marijuana intoxication reports in 2014.

Edible marijuana can be tricky, because the drug can be baked into a variety of foods, often sweets such as cookies, brownies and even candy. And it can be possible that there are situations with no weed-warning signs posted next to a tempting plate of cookies.

It’s scary stuff. So lets fact check it.

Is the trend alarming? Is it especially bad?

Well, no. Not really. But this is certainly subjective. Any time any kid (or adult, for that matter) deals with marijuana intoxication, we should have some alarm and awareness. We want the number to be zero and we understand that sometimes these issues aren’t reported. However, the WAPC engage in a terrific amount of fear mongering by throwing out percentages that sound way scarier than they are.

The year-to-year difference is not especially meaningful. In 2015, they have received just 133 cases of marijuana exposure; in 2014 it was 109.

Similarly, when you look at the breakdown of statistics, it’s not especially alarming. From their press release (buried at the end):

Increasing incidents of intoxication reported to WAPC:

Total (adults and children):
” 39 incidents reported so far in 2015 (through May)
” 38 incidents in all of 2014

Among children 0-5 years of age there were

” 6 incidents reported so far in 2015
” 11 incidents reported in 2014,
” 10 incidents reported in 2013
” 3 incidents reported 2012

Among children ages 6-17 years:
” 8 incidents reported so far in 2015
” 9 incidents reported in 2014
” 2 incidents reported in 2013
” Between 0-2 cases between 2008-2013

They even admit that this isn’t necessarily a result of more exposure, but of better education on who to contact when you suspect a problem.

“The increase in call volume on marijuana cases may be due to increased education efforts of community resources available to the public like the Poison Center and public education on what to do if someone is having a bad experience with marijuana,” says Dr. Garrard of the WAPC.

This is not the first time the WAPC engaged in this kind of misleading behavior; throwing out scary sounding statistics when the case numbers are rather low.

When filling in for the Dori Monson Show this week I recalled an email exchange I had with the organization. On air, I mistakenly said it was Dr. Duchin, but it was in fact his colleague, Dr. Alexander Garrard. At the time (09-17-14) I took issue that they presented data about marijuana exposures. I similarly thought it was misleading.

Dr. Garrard, who is in this for the right reasons, asked me how I thought the group could better inform the public in the future. Simple answer then, simple answer now: stop using scary sounding percentages without context. Lead with the numbers, not the percentages if the percentages paint a different picture than the case numbers. Because we all have a shared goal of keeping marijuana out of the hands of kids and out of the systems of people who mistakenly devour that delicious looking, but weed-infused brownie.