JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The mother of a 6-year-old girl says her daughter thought she was just eating candy when she swallowed a gummy out of a bag labeled “Faded Fruits.”
The bag also contained the words “Hawaiian Punch,” but a closer at the bag also reveals the words “cannabis infused gummies.” Notably, these gummies are not sold by the company that manufacturers the commonly known fruit drink. In the lower right corner, the bag appears to contain the California Universal Symbol for Cannabis.
According to Morgan McCoy, her daughter had spent Friday with her family. After a day at the pool, she went looking for her clothes in a room she normally stays in. Inside a drawer, her daughter came across the pack of gummies.
“I was notified that my daughter may have eaten a THC gummy,” McCoy said. “I turned around and yelled for them to call 911. And then I turned back around and she was up on her knees.”
Her daughter stayed overnight in the hospital. According to the package, one gummy contains 50mg of THC.
“My daughter was going through something awful and there was nothing I can do about it,” McCoy said.
On Wednesday, she said her daughter is feeling better.
The Florida Poison Control Center says there’s been an increase in marijuana edible exposures this year.
Anthony DeGelorm, a toxicologist, believes the packaging of some of the products are contributing to the spike.
“The availability is going up everywhere, which means that it’s just a bigger risk for kids to get into them, especially with the way some of these look,” said DeGelorm.
Her mother compared the normal look of the packaging to the THC she buys, which has a different look and is childproof sealed. She pointed out that she is a “legal medical marijuana patient.”
“And my child knows that this is not candy. This looks like the medicine bottle and she’s not going to touch it. And that’s where our country needs to be. Because regardless of whether or not pot is legal, this is being made in our country and people are going to transport it across state lines,” said McCoy.
McCoy says she hopes action is taken to protect other children from this happening.
Last month, Wrigley’s candy company filed a suit against a company selling edibles with packaging that looks like their candies, saying it poses a danger to children.