Children taken to hospital after eating pot gummies

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This article was published 24/11/2022 (763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three children in western Manitoba had to be taken to hospital after accidentally eating cannabis-infused gummies.

The children, ranging in age from five to nine, became ill on Wednesday while attending school in Shilo, 30 kilometres east of Brandon. One child was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, while the other children went to the hospital with their parents, RCMP said on Friday.

All three children were treated and released.

“At this point, we believe a child brought the edibles onto the bus and shared them with the other children thinking it was candy,” RCMP Corp. Julie Courchaine said.

Mounties are working with school administrators and parents to investigate the incident. Depending on what they learn, charges could be laid.

“Every investigation is different, so it just depends on where the evidence leads us and whether it meets the element of an offence,” Courchaine said. “

Cannabis products can easily be mistaken for regular food, especially when stored near other food and drinks. It is important to ensure products are clearly labelled and stored in locked containers, police said.

The Manitoba Poison Centre said there’s been an increase in hospital admissions of children who’ve inadvertently consumed cannabis.

While cannabis has been legal in Canada since 2018, there are still many illegally produced and unregulated products. These can contain more milligrams of THC (the psychoactive ingredient that gives cannabis its intoxicating effect) than are approved by Health Canada, the centre said.

Cannabis can cause serious harm to children, with symptoms ranging from vomiting, confusion and disorientation to seizures and coma, in the most serious cases.

Earlier this month, Winnipeg police arrested and charged a 63-year-old man and 53-year-old woman with a slew of charges after children received cannabis candies while trick-or-treating.

The two suspects, whose names were not made public, were released on a promise to appear. At the time, the charges had not been formally laid in court.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca