11-year-old New York boy overdoses on weed gum at Super Bowl party

Metro

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By Georgia Worrell

February 18, 2023 | 9:49

An 11-year-old boy from Staten Island has been hospitalized after swallowing THC gummies he mistook for candy at a Super Bowl party – and now his mum is urging the mayor to do something about it. potential tragedies involving edibles.

Veronica Gill noticed her son, Ryan, was “acting really strange” after returning from a gathering at their friends’ house in New Springville, she told the Post.

“My son was sitting on the sofa with me and he started to fall asleep. At first I thought he was faking it because he opened his eyes wide and laughed. Then he passed out again for a while. minute and then opened her eyes wide and laughed,” she said.

Gill grew concerned when the youngster’s laughter suddenly turned into cries for help – and his body started shaking.

“He started saying, ‘Mom, I feel really weird.’ He heard voices. Then he started shaking… I thought maybe he was having a fit.

In a panic, the mother-of-three rushed Ryan to an urgent care center, where her racing heartbeat led doctors to call an ambulance to take her to the emergency room at Richmond University Medical Center.

After Ryan underwent a series of tests including a CT scan – ‘God forbid they had to rule out a brain tumour,’ Gill said – a urine test revealed he had ingested a considerable amount of THC in the last few hours.

“I was literally in shock. I couldn’t believe it,” Gill recalled.

Gill was further disturbed to learn that her son had taken the weed-infused candy from a candy drawer at the “straight” party planners.

“When (my friend) went back to check the drawer after we told her what had happened, she realized that the sweets contained THC. She called us crying hysterically,” Gill said.

Gill wasn’t mad at her friend, who told her, “I have no idea how it got into my house.”

Instead, she fumed that the packages of edibles like the ones her son ate are allowed to look like regular candy brands and only have little THC warnings that shoppers may miss.

“A lot of people said ‘How did she not know (they were edible)?’ And I tell them, ‘I wouldn’t know.’ People who use this stuff know it. People who don’t even think to look (for THC warnings),” Gill said.

“I don’t blame the owner at all, because he is also a victim of this packaging.”

Ryan stayed overnight in the hospital, resting and drinking fluids as the symptoms subsided, according to his mother.

“Thank God he’s fine,” she said.

The number of calls to poison control centers for abuse and misuse of cannabis products among Americans aged 6 to 18 has skyrocketed – from 510 cases in 2000 to 1,761 in 2020, according to a recent study published in Clinical Toxicology.

New York has only four licensed stores – but more than 1,400 illegal hawkers in New York sell unregulated products, with little police intervention.

Gill pleaded with Mayor Adams to crack down on illicit cannabis sellers, especially those whose products are aimed at children – something the mayor promised to do during a press conference at City Hall on December 15 .

“What if (the mayor) made it so that if the (illegal sellers) don’t have a warning sign on their packages, in big, bold black letters, they get double the fine? Just to try to protect the kids,” Gill said.