Is it possible to have a fatal overdose of marijuana? In the history of human life, there is not one documented case and even the U.S. FDA says “No death from overdose of marijuana has been reported.” But two doctors in Colorado said they have found the first one.
In a report titled Pediatric Death Due to Myocarditis After Exposure to Cannabis, Thomas M. Nappe and Christopher O. Hoyte conclude that an unidentified child who died of an inflamed heart muscle, or “myocarditis” was a victim of cannabis overdose.
“As of this writing, this is the first reported pediatric death associated with cannabis exposure,” the Nappe and Hoyte reported.
According to the Denver Post:
The boy’s death was first reported in a study published last year about kids’ emergency room visits following marijuana legalization. The boy, who was not identified in that study, arrived at the hospital unresponsive and with a rapid heart beat, and he later went into cardiac arrest and died. He had no known history of health problems.
The boy tested positive for THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. But, at the time, the researcher on the original study said he was unsure whether that was related to the boy’s death.
But, in a new case report published this year, two doctors from the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center reveal more information about the boy’s death, while drawing a more direct line between his heart condition and the THC in his system.
But this conclusion is up for debate. Cannabis was not the actual cause of death. The 11-month-old boy died from myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle.
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Related Story: 4 Things That Can Happen During A Marijuana Overdose
Dr. Noah Kaufman, an emergency medicine specialist in Colorado, is dubious of the report. “That statement is too much. It’s too much as far as I’m concerned,” Kaufman said. “Because that is saying confidently that this is the first case. ‘We’ve got one!’ And I still disagree with that.
“There’s so many things that cause the problem that this poor baby had, that we’re not even close to saying it was definitively a marijuana overdose,” Kaufman told 9News.
“Allergies can cause this. What if the kiddo was allergic to the carnauba wax, or whatever is in the gummy that’s not the marijuana?”
