Researchers from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital have recently discovered that the number of children younger than 6 years old exposed to marijuana is rising. Results from their study, published online in the journal Clinical Pediatrics in June 2015, showed a 147.5% increase in marijuana exposure among those under the age of 6 between 2006 and 2013. That rate soared almost 610% during the same time period in states that have legalized the drug for medical purposes.
Additionally, researchers found that the exposure rate in the states that legalized marijuana between 2000 and 2013 rose nearly 16% per year after the legalization. They also spotted a significant jump the year legalization took place. Even the states in which marijuana remained illegal by 2013 showed an increase of 63% among the rate of exposed children 2000 to 2013.
“The high percentage of ingestion in children may be related to the popularity of marijuana brownies, cookies and other foods,” Henry Spiller, MS, DABAT, a co-author of the study and director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital said in a news release. “Very young children explore their environments by putting items in their mouths, and foods such as brownies and cookies are attractive.”
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