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Keeping it out of reach

This is the least fun page on the site and the one most worth reading if there are children anywhere in your life.

The numbers

Cannabis exposures among children aged five and under rose 1,375 percent between 2017 and 2021, across roughly 7,043 reported cases. 90.1 percent happened in the child's own home.

Not at a party, not somewhere careless. At home, which is where the products are.

Why a small child is a different situation entirely

There is a threshold in the literature: THC doses above 1.7mg per kilogram in children under six are highly predictive of prolonged and severe toxicity.

Run that for a real child. A 16kg toddler, around three years old, crosses that threshold at about 27mg. The standard edible serving is 10mg. Three servings.

For a drink that is one can of something perfectly ordinary, or a couple of pours from a bottle, and a can of fruit seltzer in a fridge does not look like anything a child should avoid. That is the entire problem. It looks like a drink, because it is one.

What actually helps

• Out of the fridge, or in a locked box inside it. A fridge is the one container in the house children are actively taught to open themselves.
• Never decant into an unlabelled glass or a pitcher, and never leave a poured drink where a child can reach it. Most of the risk here is a half-full glass on a coffee table, not a sealed can.
• Keep the packaging with the product. If something does go wrong, the label tells poison control the dose, and that is the single most useful piece of information anyone can have in that moment.
• Batch drinks deserve extra thought. A punch bowl has no label at all. Our Session Punch says the per-cup dose out loud for exactly this reason.

If it happens

Call poison control immediately. In the United States that is 1-800-222-1222. They would far rather talk to you about a maybe than about a certainty, and the call is free and confidential.

Bring the packaging, or a photo of it, to any medical visit.