Marijuana is now widely accepted and legalized in some states in the U.S., for the purposes of medication and recreation, with certain limits.
In Colorado, for example, pot is allowed as long as users adhere to a legal driving limit of five nanograms of THC.
Pot users get high by smoking or eating marijuana. Stores are now legally selling candies, cookies and pastries to 21-year-olds and above, but once the edibles make their way out of the store, there is no telling who partakes of them and what could happen when one overdoses from eating too much.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a recent warning highlights the dangers of ingesting marijuana.
According to the CDC, studies linked pot to psychological disturbances. In 2013, reports have estimated past-month users to be 19.8 million in the US alone, making cannabis second to alcohol as the most commonly used recreational drug in the country.
In January last year, Colorado opened its first state-licensed marijuana store that started selling recreational cannabis found in edible marijuana. Food, drink and pills infused with THC make up almost half of the total marijuana sales in the state.
Because edible marijuana is readily available in Colorado, authorities have been monitoring its effects through hospitalization data, visits to the emergency departments and poison center calls. Dr. Scott Bentz in Denver, for example, said patients who overdose on edible marijuana come in every week, showing symptoms like shortness of breath and paranoia.
The CDC says psychoactive effects and systemic THC levels caused by edible marijuana depend on varying bioavailability, gastrointestinal absorption rate and metabolic first-pass effect. Absorption of edible marijuana is slower, as in orally administered drugs that are partially metabolized before being distributed to the system.
People who eat marijuana-infused cookies, for example, get high a little longer after actually eating it, than expected. Pot takes effect after about an hour or two when eaten, but in only about 10 minutes when smoked.
Because not many people are aware of this, the delayed effects of THC, they consume multiple servings in close succession just to experience the high. The CDC stresses that this could lead to higher levels of intoxication and a greater risk for psychological disturbances of adverse effects.
In March last year, a 19-year-old international exchange student was reported to have died from jumping off a balcony, after ingesting a whole marijuana cookie that contained six times the recommended dose of pot for a user. The exchange student of Northwest College in Wyoming had gone to Denver with his friends for spring break. His 23-year-old friend got the cookie from a marijuana store, where the seller reportedly advised the 23-year-old to cut the cookie in six. The 19-year-old Northwest student, however consumed more than what is required and got too antsy, eventually getting himself to plunge into his death. Autopsy reports declared cause of death to be an accident, but also noticed that the exchange student had taken in more than seven nanograms of THC.
