NORFOLK, Va. — According to data from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA), from Jan.- July, there have been 1,203 pediatric patients that have visited emergency departments in the Commonwealth due to cannabis.
It's almost 100 more visits compared to data from that same time frame in 2022.
Health officials in Hampton Roads said they are seeing that increase as well.
"Yes, over the last two years since people have started legalizing it," Dr. Faiqa Qureshi, who works in the Pediatric Emergency Department at CHKD, said.
She said recently, they've seen more children needing medical care after accidentally ingesting cannabis products like gummies.
She said kids can sometimes mistake these products for regular candy.
"If you see some of those on the internet, you would not know the difference between that and what your child got at Halloween," Dr.Quershi said. "It's identical. It looks so good."
She said after consuming the product, kids can become sleepy and begin to hallucinate.
"Of course if they ingested a considerable quantity some of them may have difficulty breathing," Dr. Quershi said.
It's also a problem law enforcement throughout Hampton Roads are seeing.
"We've seen students here in our school system here in York County that have ingested these products and have had medical issues and had to be transported to local hospitals," said York County Sheriff Ron Montgomery.
Back in July, new laws went into effect establishing basic health and safety guideline for cannabis products.
It required new products to be lab tested, follow basic packaging and label standards, and limiting product to containing only .3% THC or a 25:1 ratio of CBD to THC.
Sheriff Montgomery, who is part of a new coalition called Virginians for Cannabis Safety, said despite more regulation, some businesses are still selling dangerous products.
"It hasn't been over a month ago that we conducted an operation where we went in with search warrants and removed many different products that are being tested right now," Montgomery said.
On Wednesday, the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority issued a new report for the General Assembly on how other states are handling the sale of consumable hemp products.
Some of those recommendations for lawmakers include imposing further limits on online sale of the products and restricting the physical access to minors in stores.
To look at the full report click here.
