Nineteen Maine children have accidentally ingested cannabis products in 2024, according to a new report from a government panel, while incidences of accidental fentanyl ingestion among youths continue to rise.
The number of children inadvertently ingesting marijuana has nearly quadrupled since 2020, when retail cannabis operations were first allowed to open in the state.
While there are no known cases of humans dying from ingesting cannabis, the report will add to debates about whether the labeling and safety packaging on cannabis products are sufficient to prevent children from accidentally and inadvertently accessing them.
The Maine Child Death & Serious Injury Review Panel told the Human Services Committee during a meeting Wednesday that there have been 19 reported cases of children ingesting marijuana so far this year.
Panel Chair Mark Moran went on to explain that overall instances of accidental drug ingestion tracked in the report rose 114 percent from 2021 to 2022 and are currently on track to exceed one hundred this year alone.
Although the trend line is cannabis ingestion among minors, alcohol ingestion by children, which Moran’s report did not examine, is significantly more prevalent than accidental ingestion of marijuana.
According to the most recent Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey, 6 percent of children ten or younger reported having an alcoholic drink. In the same survey, 12.1 percent of children ten or younger said that it would be “sort of easy” or “very easy” for them to obtain alcohol.
In comparison, just 0.5 percent of children ten and younger said they had ever used marijuana, while 6.9 percent said that it would be “sort of easy” or “very easy” for them to obtain alcohol.
Among reported incidents of children ingesting opioids, none involved fentanyl in 2020, but this shot up to 54 percent in 2021, falling to 46 percent in 2022, and 36 percent in 2023.
So far in 2024, all reported instances of children ingesting opioids have been the result of fentanyl consumption as opposed to prescription opioid pills.
When asked, Moran told the panel that he did not have data on how many of these incidents may have ultimately resulted in death or serious harm to the child involved.
Signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills (D) in April of this year was a bill sponsored by Rep. David W. Boyer Jr. (R-Poland) that exempted marijuana gummies from a requirement mandating that each serving be marked with the universal symbol indicating they are infused with cannabis.
The bill was approved by a roll call vote in the House of 102-36 and passed through the Senate without a roll call being taken.
Concern over this change was expressed by Director of Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) John Hudak — who had previously offered testimony against the law — on the grounds that it endangers children’s well-being.
Supporters of the law have argued in favor of loosening this requirement for the sake of practicality, pointing out that all other packaging requirements — including making them tamper-evident and child-resistant — remain in place.
Backers also said contended that placing pot-leaf shaped labels on gummies isn’t a strong deterrent, but also that rules around individual edible labeling are murky and have been inconsistently applied against cannabis edible manufacturers.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Hudak suggested that the ingestion of cannabis and other drugs by children is not exclusive to Maine but is a prevalent issue nationwide.
“It’s not just a problem in Maine. It’s not just a problem in New England. It’s a problem that is nationwide,” he said. “It is one we need to take seriously, and it’s an important one to bring data and science to the conversation in an effort to promote public health.”
Hudak previously disclosed in a 2023 public meeting in Skowhegan that he himself is a habitual user of marijuana.
Hudak also noted that Mainers approved the legalization of marijuana in 2016 by the narrowest margin of any state “up to that point and since,” meaning that there are “diverse views” in the state about how it should be treated.
[RELATED: By the Numbers — A Look at Maine’s Recreational and Medical Marijuana Industries]
As of 2023, the biggest year-over-year jump in cannabis sales came between 2020 and 2021, during which time spending on marijuana increased by more than 19-fold.
In 2020, there were just 62,459 recreational marijuana transactions, but this number shot up over a million in 2021, reaching 1,118,140 by the end of that year. 2022 saw more than double that, coming in at a total of 2,477,691.
Last year, there were nearly 300 active recreational cannabis licenses in Maine — 89 cultivation licenses, 68 manufacturing licenses, 4 testing licenses, and 135 store licenses.
According to the Lewiston Sun Journal, Rep. Boyer underscored in a statement Wednesday that the bill he sponsored eliminating labeling requirements for marijuana gummies passed by a bipartisan supermajority and left all other packaging and safety requirements in effect.
“This is simply more Reefer Madness 2.0 from John Hudak and the OCP,” Boyer said. “He is doing the bidding of out-of-state corporations, trying to take over Maine’s homegrown industry we have worked so hard to maintain and protect.”
The Human Services Committee did not take any action during Wednesday’s meeting in response to the data and arguments presented.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="29788 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=29788">4 Comments
How many kids have drunk alcohol?
I doubt any labeling would have made a difference any more than the labeling on tobacco or alcohol. It all comes back to the parents.
No harm, no foul,…. get over it,…..
Did you know tax on pot is around 20% but if you want to ship a cigar in from another state the Dems have mandated an 43% excise tax? Then made it illegal to buy ziz-zags on amazon? Someone please explain the logic in this.