A six-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after eating cannabis edibles that his parents thought were just freeze-dried cones.
Catherine Buttereit, 45, from North Carolina, was having lunch at a restaurant in Charlotte when her son saw what he thought was a bag of the rare freeze-dried version of the popular candy.
After purchasing the pack, she allowed the youngster to indulge as he began munching on the colorful treats, unaware that it was actually laced with Delta 9, a legal form of THC, the main psychoactive compound found in cannabis is found.
The chemical is responsible for the euphoric or ‘high’ effects often associated with marijuana use.
The substance stimulates brain areas involved in mood, attention and memory – and activates the release of the ‘pleasure’ hormone dopamine.
Catherine Buttereit, 45, had no idea the sweet treats were in fact THC candies and that the child had consumed 40 pieces – 13 times the normal adult dose
Buttereit believed the candy was the rare freeze-dried version of the popular Skittles candy, but it was in fact cannabis edibles
Six-year-old North Carolina boy unknowingly consumed a cannabis edible that his parents mistook for freeze-dried cones
In small, irregular doses, THC can cause little damage. But on bigger hits and if used over longer periods of time, it can disrupt signaling in key brain areas.
The entire party was fed up with some of the candy, including the boy’s parents and several other children in the family.
But while most tried only one or two pieces, The children of Buttereit ate almost 40 of them, and it wasn’t long before the little boy felt strange.
“He grabbed his head and said, ‘My mind is wobbly.’ And I thought, there was something in my mother brain, something is wrong,” Buttereit said W.S.O.C.
Her fiancé took a closer look at the label.
“He said, ‘It’s Delta 9,’” she said. ‘And I still don’t know what that means. And he says, ‘It’s like weed.'”
“I was terrified,” Buttereit continued. “I thought I killed my child.”
The boy complained of pain in his pelvic area, his chest was cold and his head hurt.
“He showed no symptoms of my child actually being in pain. He had kind of a grin on his face,” Buttereit said.
The child had consumed thirteen times the adult dose of THC and was rushed to the hospital, where he required six hours of emergency room treatment.
“He was in excruciating pain,” Buttereit told the New York Post.
Butteriet said her child was in excruciating pain before falling into a deep sleep for 17 hours. He finally woke up free of symptoms.
The package does have a 21+ recommended mark printed on it, but the warning is small and stores in North Carolina are not required to enforce age restrictions when selling such products
The edibles were purchased from the Common Market restaurant in the South End neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, pictured
Buttereit wants better labeling in stores and for retailers to keep such sweets out of the reach of young people – and at least give a warning to unsuspecting parents
The child fell into a deep sleep for 17 hours before finally waking up when he was finally free of symptoms.
‘I was never asked for ID. I was never informed about what I was buying.’
The package does have a 21+ mark on it, but the warning is small and stores in North Carolina are not required to impose age restrictions on the sale of such products.
“(The store owner) said it was a marijuana jar and three pieces was an adult portion. So at that point he had used about a third of the pack, which is about 30 to 40 pieces they estimated at the hospital. So he essentially had 13 times the dose for an adult and he’s like a 40 pound six year old.
“I felt like it was such a crazy series of events, but it could happen to someone else,” said Buttereit, who was eager to warn other unsuspecting parents.
‘I fully accept my negligence as a parent. I made the mistake of not reading the package and I am dealing with the consequences. But it was 50-50 negligence. That product was not in the correct storage location.’
A spokesperson for the Common Market restaurant in the South End neighborhood, where Buttereit purchased the adult treats, says they have now improved signage around the products as a precaution.
The store, which describes itself as an ‘unusual supermarket, deli and bar’, says its usual policy is to keep products in a case or behind the counter.
The National Poison Data System (NPDS), which collects data for the 55 U.S. poison control centers, has recorded a sharp increase in the number of cases of minors consuming edible marijuana, to more than 3,000 cases per year.
Last year, a Portland, Oregon pediatrician warned parents to keep cannabis edibles out of the reach of children – with recent data showing that 7,000 children under six had eaten them between 2017 and 2021.
While many of the children experienced only mild symptoms, such as excessive sleepiness, researchers say nearly a quarter ended up in hospital and warn of the emergence of a new threat to household safety.
“Unintentional exposure to cannabis in young children is increasing rapidly,” the researchers warned
‘This exposure can cause significant toxicity and is responsible for an increasing number of hospital admissions.’
Dr. Beth Ebel of the University of Washington told Yahoo News, “We see this all day.
“My friends in the emergency room see kids coming in and they’re trying to decide, does this child have a brain hemorrhage or a brain tumor? Or is this a child who really has a low level of consciousness because he has ingested something.
Teenagers are being lured by colorfully packaged, candy-like products that leave them vulnerable to higher rates of dependency, psychosis and dropping out of school, researchers warn. Pictured: Kid-friendly cannabis gummy packaging
He added that the risks to children’s health could be “irreversible.”
‘One of the very worrying things is that these powerful products have a strong association with schizophrenia and psychotic disorder.
“I’ve seen kids in the hospital using some of these more powerful products: young kids who are doing well in school, and they come to (Harborview Medical Center) after a psychotic break.
‘Sometimes this is a lifelong onset of schizophrenia, and this can be accelerated by these powerful products.’
Recreational use of cannabis is legal in 24 US states, with Ohio being the latest to greenlight the drug in November 2023.