Every now and again, we come across stories of kids accidentally (and sometimes purposefully) dosing their teachers or classmates with marijuana edibles. This time, the story comes out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. One Thursday morning before class, a generous fifth grader was handing out gummy bears to some of her fellow students, and one nine-year-old quickly began feeling some ill effects.
“She had this box, it had a label on it that said ‘Incredibles.’ We just thought it was ordinary gummies,” the student told reporters. But they were medical marijuana edibles.
“I started feeling really dizzy. I felt like the room was going to flip to the side,” she explained.
The student who initially handed out the gummies had a much worse time of things, having eaten three or four of them. According to the Dean of Elementary Students, the fifth grader started acting strangely and began saying that she couldn’t see.
Since it seems impossible to overdose on marijuana, all the kids were fine from a physical standpoint. But they and their parents have definitely suffered an immense amount of stress thanks to the negligence of one student’s parents. So, how can adults who use cannabis practice better marijuana edible safety? Let’s go over some easy ideas.
Making Your Own
One way to bump up your marijuana edible safety is to see if there’s an edible that you know your kid won’t like. Do they hate raisins? Oatmeal? Then go ahead and infuse some oatmeal raisin cookies. Do they turn their nose up at protein balls and granola bars? Then go for those. The idea behind this approach is to make something unappealing, so that even if the kid somehow bypasses whatever storage security you have in place, they won’t want to chow down on what they find.
This is a great chance to get creative, to say the least!
Storing Edibles Safely
- Wrap your items up in an opaque wrapping such as parchment or wax paper.
- Vacuum seal the edibles with thick bags. You can even find black vacuum-seal paper to make things easier.
- Label it something gross like “chicken livers,” and stow it in the back.
If kids can’t see what’s in it and they assume it’s something nasty, there’s no chance of another Albuquerque happening.
Store-Bought Edibles
The edibles you buy in dispensaries can vary hugely in terms of packaging. In Oregon, for example, packaging cannot include any cartoons or any symbols, themes, or characters that are “appealing to minors.” California’s new laws include a stipulation that all edibles must be packaged in opaque material, so kids can’t see what’s in it. It also can’t imitate any candy packaging or labeling.
In New Mexico, however, there aren’t any packaging rules meant to enhance child safety. It’s likely that the gummies brought to school by the fifth grader were packaged in such a way that they looked indistinguishable from regular candy. The number-one way to keep edibles away from kids is to make them as unappealing as possible.
As anyone who interacts with kids knows, marijuana edible safety is absolutely critical. So keep it safe and out of sight!
