GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Grand Rapids pediatric emergency doctor wants parents to know just how dangerous marijuana can be for children, teenagers and young adults as her department is seeing an increase in related visits.
Dr. Erica Michiels is the medical director of the pediatric emergency department at Helen Devos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids. She is incredibly concerned about what she's seeing in her department involving marijuana and wants families to listen up.
She said the number of young children coming into the emergency department for marijuana-related problems has jumped about 77% since the legalization of recreational marijuana.
She explained, "negative impacts on young children due to those accidental ingestions where we see that they are losing their drive to breathe on their own, they are coming in unconscious."
She said that the increase is more than 30% for teenagers and young adults.
She said the department sees, "children coming in psychotic, ya know really not seeing the same things that everybody else is seeing in the room, very paranoid, very anxious, coming in with heart rates, you know, in the two hundreds as a teenager because of the effects of, of smoking a high potency product."
Among all those visits, Michiels said she's seen an "impressive" increase in kids suffering from hyperemesis due to cannabinoids, which can cause, "incredible abdominal pain, vomiting and retching that they can't stop."
She added, "this is something that looks terrifying to families."
Dr. Michiels said the department is also seeing addiction.
"The old rule of thumb with marijuana was, well, you can't get addicted to this and that is just absolutely untrue with, at least with high potency products, we are definitely seeing kids' lives be ruined because they are addicted to this product."
Dr. Michiels plea to the community is to take this issue seriously. She said that's a problem too.
"Our public has to start understanding and believing that young children can die from exposure to marijuana products that are currently available on the market, and that we are allowing our teenager's brains to be adversely affected, potentially for the rest of their lives."