As California’s legal cannabis market matures, exposure to cannabis marketing, and the range of cannabis products, have grown with it. Laws and regulations must also evolve alongside this new market to ensure the safety of our children and youth. However, Prop 64 provisions intended to protect children, including that cannabis products 1) would not be designed to be appealing to children and 2) would be prohibited from being marketed/advertised to persons younger than 21 years old, have not been effectively implemented.
Regulations have weakened, rather than enforced these protections, failing to put in place systems to assess and prevent products from being attractive to children or to resemble conventional candy or food typically marketed to kids. Product prohibition was limited only to those determined to violate these provisions on a case by case basis. The result has been the proliferation of hundreds of products in legal commerce with characteristics of candies and foods typically marketed to or known to attract children and youth in their physical form, name, packaging or labeling, often with ten doses in a single soda can or edible bar.
Of concern is the impact this is having on our children and in our communities.
- Cannabis-related emergency department visits in California increased by 75% between 2016 and 2020.
- Annual cannabis exposures reported to California Poison Control increased from below 200 in 2010 to over 1600 by 2020; 50% involved children, half below age 12; ingestion of gummies, candies, chocolate and drinks increased significantly. There were only 16 total reported gummy exposures between 2010 and 2015 vs. 409 in 2020 alone.
- At Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, children under age 10 testing positive for THC quadrupled since 2016, mostly from edibles, of which three quarters were from candies or gummies. Half led to hospitalization and one in ten to intensive care.
- Multiple CA school districts experienced incidents of cannabis poisoned children, often in groups, requiring evacuation by ambulance, typically after ingesting products marketed to resemble candies or chips. Schools are also seeing widespread vaping of high THC cannabis products marketed as flavored.
- Nationally, edible cannabis poisonings of children six and under increased 1,375% between 2017 and 2021, growing in severity. Many resulted in intensive care or mechanical ventilation, and even, though uncommon, in death. In those under age 10, edibles were the first cause, followed by plant material, then concentrates and vaping products. For 10-20 year olds, plant material led, followed by edibles, concentrates and vaping products, demonstrating that the problem extends beyond just edibles.
Child exposure to and consumption of cannabis is neither necessary nor an acceptable by-product of a legal cannabis market. Our children, youth, parents and schools cannot afford the continued proliferation of cannabis products attractive to children. The Cannabis Candy Child Safety Act will honor the promise and intent of Prop 64 to keep cannabis and its products out of the hands and bodies of our children by:
- Clarifying the definition of what is considered “attractive to children.”
- Clearly prohibiting the sale, manufacture, packaging, labeling or marketing of cannabis products attractive to children.
- Requiring adoption of emergency regulations to implement these provisions.
Please join the American Academy of Pediatrics - California, the American College of Emergency Physicians - California Chapter, The California Society of Addiction Medicine, California State Parent Teacher Association, the Public Health Institute, Youth Forward and many others in supporting AB 1207 by signing on below!
For more information, please contact Dr. Lynn Silver at lsilver@phi.org.
