According to scientific police figures, the level of THC in cannabis resin – the molecule responsible for the psychotropic effects of this drug – has tripled over the past twenty years. Over the past ten years, scientific studies have made the same observation through a phenomenon that is also growing: pediatric poisoning, i.e. children who swallow pieces of cannabis resin left negligently around them.
These accidental ingestion situations make it possible to see “The products that circulate in our society, explains Maryse Lapeyre-Mestre, head of the Toulouse addictovigilance center. The levels of THC concentrations observed at each assessment are increasing ”.
If they remain limited, the cases of poisoning related to the consumption of cannabis by children have observed an increasing trend for ten years, with a particularly marked increase from 2014. That year, in November, emergencies pediatric patients from the Toulouse University Hospital have approached the Midi-Pyrénées regional health agency (ARS) in the face of the multiplication of unusually serious situations, with cases of coma and apnea justifying monitoring in continuous care or intensive care. The hospital, which listed twelve cases between 2007 and 2012, notes as many situations over the first ten months of 2014.
Variable consequences
A study on the whole of the territory, led by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), was then launched. Results: in 2015, 254 hospitalizations of children under 10 related to cannabis consumption were counted, including 209 infants between 1 month and 2 years old. In 2010, there were 67 hospitalizations of children under 10, including 50 infants. The regions most concerned are Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, with a peak in reports observed at the time of the end-of-year celebrations and during the summer period.
In the latest reports carried out in 2017 and 2019, the upward trend continues. Depending on the doses ingested, the consequences observed are variable: children are most often found in a state of drowsiness or restlessness, their heart rate accelerates. Some have difficulty breathing, seizures, and may fall into a coma. At the same time, health professionals are seeing an increase in worrying cases, with a life-threatening prognosis and the need for a transfer to intensive care.
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