The Illinois Poison Center reported on the number of unintentional exposures to marijuana edibles among young children from 2019 to 2023. Here’s what they found:
Number of Marijuana Edible Exposures Among Young Illinois Children by Year  |
Illinois legalized the personal use of marijuana and commercialized it on January 1st, 2020. Following legalization, the number of marijuana edible exposures among young children in Illinois increased. After legalization, <1-year-olds had an increase of 20%, 1-year-olds had an increase of 83.3%, 2-year-olds had an increase of 87.8%, 3-year-olds had an increase of 103.7%, 4-years-olds had an increase of 13.2%, and 5-year-olds had an increase of 66.7%.
As more states legalize marijuana, marijuana exposures to young children continue to rise throughout the country. Among the 10 states with the highest prevalence of past-year marijuana use among youth, 9 had legalized recreational marijuana. Additionally, SAM created an interactive map showing instances of THC hospitalizations and ED visits reported in local news outlets. The map shows any THC-related story, including Delta-8 THC and Delta-9 THC. Click here to view the map.