JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BRPROUD) — The mother of a 6-year-old girl who overdosed on THC is questioning why it is packaged in a way that might appeal to children.
Morgan McCoy’s 6-year-old daughter consumed 50 mg of THC – the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects – after finding it in a dresser.
The 6-year-old girl, who was with her father at a pool gathering while visiting family members, had gone to look for her clothes when she found the brightly colored package of “cannabis infused gummies.”
The gummies belonged to an in-laws’ friend who was staying in the room where the girl usually stays during visits. The friend, who was one of about 30 to 40 friends visiting that weekend, had put the gummies in a dresser between some clothes.
McCoy, who had been visiting her sister at the time, returned to the home, where nothing seemed out of the ordinary for several hours. Then a parent told her that her daughter may have eaten a THC gummy.
McCoy immediately went to look for her daughter and found her lying down with her eyes closed. McCoy picked her up and laid her on a couch, and the girl “kind of braced herself like she felt like she was falling,” she said.
After 911 was called, the 6-year-old began to seize, her mother said.
“I grabbed her and ran outside and just paced back and forth waiting for the ambulance to arrive, crying uncontrollably and crying out to God,” McCoy said.
The 6-year-old and her parents spent a tense night in the hospital during which the girl’s “breaths per minute would drop to single digits at times,” McCoy said, adding that “her heart rate would shoot up to alarming levels at others.”
“I was up all night with my husband watching those machines,” McCoy said. “It was one of the scariest moments of my life and I never want another parent to go through that.”
The 6-year-old has since recovered and no one was charged, but the incident has pushed McCoy to work for regulation of this market.
She said she has called local, state and national leaders in an effort to prevent what she calls “companies targeting our kids with what can be deadly doses of THC.”
McCoy provided another example below of how THC is packaged:
In contrast, she showed below what labeling could look like when you purchase THC products from a pot dispensary.
Despite her call for more regulation on how THC is marketed, McCoy said she is in favor of the legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “a fatal overdose is unlikely, but that doesn’t mean marijuana is harmless.”
The CDC added that signs of marijuana overuse include extreme confusion, anxiety, paranoia, panic, fast heart rate, delusions or hallucinations, increased blood pressure, and severe nausea or vomiting.