XPost: alt.support.marijuana   
   From: a425couple@hotmail.com   
      
   The truth behind the ‘first marijuana overdose death’ headlines   
   By Ellie Silverman November 17 at 11:12 PM   
      
   Glass containers display varieties of marijuana for sale on shelves at   
   the Station, a retail and medical cannabis dispensary, in Boulder, Colo.   
   (AP)   
   A case report about the seizure and death of an 11-month old after   
   exposure to cannabis has prompted headlines about “the first marijuana   
   overdose death” this week.   
      
   Except that’s not what the doctors meant.   
      
   “We are absolutely not saying that marijuana killed that child,” said   
   Thomas Nappe, an author of the report who is now the director of medical   
   toxicology at St. Luke’s University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa.   
      
   Nappe, who co-authored the report with Christopher Hoyte, explained that   
   the doctors simply observed this unusual sequence of events, documented   
   it and alerted the medical community that it is worth studying a   
   possible relationship between cannabis and the child’s cause of death,   
   myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle.   
      
   Their observations appeared in the August edition of the journal   
   Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine as a case report,   
   which is significantly different from a scientific study or research   
   report that can be used to establish a causal relationship.   
      
      
   A spokesman for Denver Health wrote in an email that Hoyte would not be   
   available for an interview late Thursday. But he told the Cannabist   
   Friday that, “We’re not saying definitively that marijuana caused the   
   myocarditis. All we are saying is we didn’t find any other reasons. So   
   we need to study this further.”   
      
   The report states that the child experienced an “unstable motel-living   
   situation” and the parents admitted to drug possessions, including   
   cannabis. Nappe said the authors urge parents to be vigilant and keep   
   cannabis out of reach of children.   
      
   The report recommends: “In states where cannabis is legalized, it is   
   important that physicians not only counsel parents on preventing   
   exposure to cannabis, but to also consider cannabis toxicity in   
   unexplained pediatric myocarditis and cardiac deaths as a basis for   
   urine drug screening in this setting.”   
      
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   The authors added that, "As of this writing, this is the first reported   
   pediatric death associated with cannabis exposure.”   
      
   Nappe emphasized that the word “associated” should not be interpreted as   
   indicating a cause and effect.   
      
   Drug policy and health experts also warned against making too much of   
   the report.   
      
   “You just can’t make those statements because then what happens is lay   
   people say, ‘Oh my God, did you hear a kid died from marijuana   
   poisoning?’ and it can be sensationalized,” said Noah Kaufman, a   
   Northern Colorado emergency room physician.   
      
   “It’s not based on reality. It’s based on somebody kind of jumping the   
   gun and making a conclusion, and scientifically you can’t do that.”   
      
   Turns out, that’s what happened in previous news reports, much to   
   Nappe’s dismay. Upon hearing that Nappe and Hoyte were not claiming that   
   the child died from marijuana, Kaufman said “that’s more responsible.”   
      
   Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz   
   College, said that it doesn’t strike him as impossible that the death   
   described in the report could be linked to marijuana.   
      
   “Unambiguously, cannabis can accelerate the heart,” said Caulkins, who   
   is not a medical doctor but studies drug policy and markets. He also   
   agreed that parents should keep marijuana out of reach of their children.   
      
   Millions of Americans use marijuana regularly, according to the most   
   recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and addiction treatment   
   researcher Keith Humphreys said cannabis consumption has “virtually no   
   risk” of death.   
      
   The Drug Enforcement Administration states that there have been no   
   reported overdose deaths from marijuana.   
      
   Even if after further studies it turns out that this child’s death was   
   caused by a marijuana overdose, it would be “a very unusual event,” said   
   Humphreys, a Stanford University psychiatry professor who served as a   
   senior policy adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control   
   Policy during the Obama administration.   
      
   “It would not be correct to go from this to a generalized panic about   
   the lethality of cannabis. It’s just not there,” Humphreys said.   
      
   “This is not an omen of a disaster to come.”   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/11/17   
   the-truth-behind-the-first-marijuana-overdose-death/?utm_term=.28013a4d7b82   
      
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