Sociodemographic profile and clinical presentation of young children unintentionally exposed to marijuana: A single site retrospective cohort

Background and Objectives

Legalization of medical marijuana has increased unintentional exposure to marijuana in young children.

We aim to explore the sociodemographic disadvantage profile, prevalence, and clinical presentation of children diagnosed with unintentional exposure to marijuana.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective chart abstraction of 121 children (aged 0–6) seen at the Emergency Department (ED) at a single tertiary hospital center in Dayton, Ohio between January 01, 2010 and January 09, 2022.

Results

Majority were female (62.8%), white (50.4%), and with Medicaid as their primary insurance (84.3%). The median age at exposure was 1.8 years. There was a 14-fold increase in unintentional marijuana cases pre-2017 (7 cases) versus post-2017 (114 cases), the year of legalization of medical marijuana in the state of Ohio. Majority of the patients were using public assistance (66.4%). 26.7% of the cases had a prior social work consultation and 38.1% had a prior children services consultation. 51.3% of the children had a social disadvantage index score of 3 or greater (range 0–5) with higher scores indicating greater disadvantage.

Discussion and Conclusions

The number of patients presenting to the ED at the hospital has increased 14-fold since the legalization of medical marijuana in Ohio. Half of the children displayed a higher sociodemographic disadvantage index score.

Scientific Significance

Our study is the first study investigating the sociodemographic profile of children exposed to marijuana. The findings of this study may be utilized to inform policy for safely dispensing recreational and medicinal marijuana products and focus the efforts on families with sociodemographic disadvantage.