Marijuana Mass Poisonings on the Rise
/19 sent to hospital in San Francisco
Edible marijuana offered at a quinceañera celebration is suspected of sickening 19 people Saturday night in San Francisco's Mission District, according to the city's Department of Public Health.
Preliminary lab tests showed that gummy ring candy from the party contained THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana."Anyone who attended the quinceañera and may have taken home some of the gummy rings is urged to discard them immediately," said Dr. Tomas Aragon, health officer for the city and county of San Francisco.
The 19 people were taken to the hospital Saturday with symptoms ranging from a rapid heart rate and dilated pupils to nausea, lethargy and confusion. All were released by Monday morning.
Health officials are investigating the origin of the candy, including the catering company, which is from Oakland, officials said.
"The question remains, where did the candies come from?" said Aragon.
He warned of the dangers of edible marijuana at parties where it can be hard to control the dosage.
"A situation like this, where they were consumed by unsuspecting people, and many children, is greatly concerning," Aragon said.
A quinceañera is a celebration of a girl's 15th birthday in some Latin American cultures.
24 sent to hospital in Ohio
THC in candies also sent 24 music festival attendees to the hospital in Richland County, Ohio, on Saturday, according to the county sheriff's office. No one lost consciousness and everyone seems to be OK, Sheriff's Capt. Donald Zehner said.
A 28-years-old man from Michigan was arrested in connection with the overdoses, the sheriff's office said Monday.
Paramedics initially believed the overdoses were caused by opiates, but when victims did not respond to the antidote Narcan, the candies were tested and came back positive for a high dosage of THC, CNN affiliate WEWS reported.
The overdose victims Saturday were attending the EST FEST music festival in Butler, Zehner said.
Synthetic cannabinoids can be anywhere from two to 100 times more potent than natural THC, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They are generally unpredictable because of the unknown chemical composition of the drugs, which, the National Institute on Drug Abuse noted, may change from batch to batch.
10 sent to hospital in Lake Tahoe, CA
Marijuana brownies sent a bachelorette party to the emergency room over the weekend, according to the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.
The group met in the city over the weekend of July 30-31, and ate the brownies they had gotten from a ride-sharing service during that visit, Chief Brian Uhler said in his report to the community.
Ten women had to be taken to an emergency room within a few hours, he said, and eight were admitted to the hospital for treatment. Uhler did not specify why.
"While many would have you believe marijuana is a harmless drug, those of us in the public safety arena have seen increases in medical emergencies from marijuana ingestion," he said in the report. "It is noteworthy that our system of emergency medical transport was completely tapped in order to handle this event. Thankfully, no other medical emergencies occurred simultaneously (sic), otherwise someone might not have received timely emergency help."
Uhler used the report to state his opposition to California's Proposition 64, which would legalize recreational marijuana. He cited a 32 percent increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths in Colorado from 2013 to 2014, apparently referring to research collected by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
"This initiative is bad for California and bad for South Lake Tahoe," he said.
6 people sent to emergency room after eating THC-laced cookies at Indiana church
ELLETTSVILLE, Ind. — Police say six Indiana churchgoers who were hospitalized after eating cookies given to them by a fellow congregant after Mass later tested positive for THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana.
Police are sending a cookie for analysis from the batch distributed May 22 at St. John the Apostle Church in Ellettsville, 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
Ellettsville Deputy Chief Tony Bowlen tells the Bloomington Herald-Times that the cookies were the only common factor among those who fell ill, and that the urine of all those affected tested positive for cannabinoids.
Bowlen says no definitive link has been made between the cookies and their symptoms, which included high blood pressure, anxiety, lethargy and paranoia.
The cookie-eaters range in age from 12 to 70.
We at CALM only expect such events to increase in frequency and danger as out of state interests push Marijuana legalization on the state of California.