A little boy of one and a half fell into a coma after accidentally ingesting a ball of cannabis that his father had left lying on the table.
A one-and-a-half-year-old boy fell into a coma after swallowing a cannabis pellet. He has been hospitalized since this weekend at the Kremlin-Bicêtre CHU (Seine-et-Marne), reports The Parisian.
The child allegedly accidentally ingested a piece of cannabis resin left on the living room coffee table by his father. The latter would have rolled his joint then left the room. Enough time for the child to grab it and put it in his mouth. About 20 minutes later, the little boy convulsed and passed out before being taken to hospital.
Tests carried out at the hospital revealed the presence of a large amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance in cannabis, in the child’s blood.
The father was taken into custody on Wednesday and admitted the facts. Prosecuted for non-assistance to anyone in danger and for material and moral abandonment on his son and administration of an illicit substance by the Meaux prosecutor’s office, he was placed under judicial control. He should be tried at the end of January.
247 hospitalizations in 2014
This news item is unfortunately not an isolated case. Last year, the National Medicines Agency (ANSM) sounded the alarm: in 2014, 247 children under 10 were hospitalized after ingesting cannabis. “There is a strong regional disparity, the most affected areas being Ile-de-France and those in the south (PACA, Rhône-Alpes)”, specifies the ANSM.
In addition, addictovigilance centers report that between 2010 and 2014, 140 cases of pediatric intoxication were recorded. The vast majority concern children under the age of 2, and almost all cases have been hospitalized for at least 24 hours.
Over this period, 9 serious cases “corresponding to life-threatening situations and resulting in admission to pediatric intensive care or continuing care” were reported. These children presented in particular cardiac, ventilatory and neurological disorders. To date, no deaths have been to be deplored.
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