Study: Children in danger of eating weed edibles that look like popular sweets

By Joe Morgan via SWNS

Children are in increasing danger of eating potentially lethal cannabis products that are made to look like popular sweets, warns new research.

Cannabis edibles with colorful and child-like packaging are gaining popularity.

But London law student Damilola Olakanmi, 23, became the latest victim of the craze earlier this month when she bought gummies from a dealer and died wailing in pain four days later after eating just one.

A 21-year-old friend who was visiting from the US was also taken ill after having just one of the sweets police suspect was laced with cannabis. She has now been discharged from hospital.

From 2017 to 2019, US Poison Control officials handled nearly 2,000 cases of young children ages 0 to 9 consuming edibles.

Researchers fear that a bag of gummies could contain 60 times the dosage of a single hit of cannabis.

Researchers collected hundreds of photos of cannabis products and analyzed their packaging, including branding, names, imagery, and THC content.

They focused on photos for 267 edibles and found that eight percent closely resembled 13 different snack products.

Twelve of the products were candies or sweet snacks (fruit chews, fruit snacks, rice and marshmallow treats, and gummies) and one was a bag of chips.

Eight of the 13 packages used the exact brand or product name of the original product; the remaining five used names that were similar, calling them Stoner Patch Dummies instead of Sour Patch Kids for instance.

Seven of the packages used the same cartoon or brand character as the original product.

According to information listed on the packaging of the lookalike products, these edibles contained an average of 459 mg of THC and a range of 300 to 600 mg per package, greatly exceeding the maximum limits of 10mg in US states where cannabis is legal.

Dr. Danielle Ompad, associate professor of epidemiology at New York University, said: "At first glance, most of the packages look almost exactly like familiar snacks.

"If these copycat cannabis products are not stored safely, there is the potential for accidental ingestion by children or adults.

“While each package is likely intended to include multiple doses, few packages indicate the serving size or number of servings.

“Moreover, if we’re considering 10 mg a standard dose, these products could contain an alarming 30 to 60 doses per package."

She added: “Policies to prevent cannabis packaging from appealing to children haven’t stopped copycat products from entering the market—nor have food brands taking legal action against cannabis companies for copyright infringement.

“People who purchase edibles that look like snack foods should store them separately from regular snacks and out of reach of children.”