Edible ‘copycat’ cannabis harms children: Health Canada – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

Edible “copycat cannabis” harms children, according to Health Canada. They warn cannabis users to only buy “legal and regulated” cannabis from “authorized retailers” who offer products in “plain packaging with child-safe features.”

To the non-consumer or occasional user, that sounds reasonable. You wouldn’t buy whiskey in an unlabeled bottle made in someone’s bathtub. And there’s no way you would leave that unmarked bottle around children where it could be mistaken for iced tea.

But for many, cannabis is a vegetable. Imagine if Health Canada warned that buying vegetables at “unregulated” farmers’ markets could put your children’s health at risk. That you should only shop at one of Canada’s big food companies?

This is how cannabis connoisseurs feel about cannabis in Canada.

Of course, this is about mimicking edible cannabis. Health Canada fears illegal edible products are targeting children by mimicking popular brand names.

For example, how Mike’s Hard Lemonade might appeal to children. Or how certain wine bottles have cartoons on the label. Or how beer commercials show young, healthy-looking adults having fun instead of a lonely, depressed alcoholic with a bulging beer belly slumped on the couch watching Netflix.

This double standard when it comes to cannabis is annoying. For this reason, Health Canada’s “copycat” warning on edible cannabis rings hollow.

Besides, it’s entirely the fault of the federal government that these products are popular in the first place.

‘Mimic’ edible cannabis harms children: Health Canada

We’ll look at how edible cannabis is said to “harm” children. But first, let’s explore why these “copycat” cannabis edibles are to blame for Ottawa’s “public health” approach to cannabis legalization.

As we previously discussed, the limit for edible cannabis in Canada is 10 milligrams per serving. This makes edibles one of the least popular categories of cannabis products. Compare that to how popular edibles are in many legal American states where there is no limit.

Canadians either make their own edibles, buy potent extracts instead, or buy “illegal” products.

“Affected products” include Stoneo, an Oreo food. Also included are edible cannabis copycat versions of:

• cheetos
• nerds
• Froot loops
• skittles
• starburst
• ruffles
• Doritos
• fried
• Funny ranchers
• Sour Patch Kids
• air heads
• Twinkies
• fruit fanatic
• Maynard sweets

Health Canada recommends Canadians discard these products and contact local authorities. We encourage Canadians who own these products to consume them and leave us a comment with your rating.

Even if you have children: keep them out of reach.

Just as you would with the thousands of other household items that can seriously harm a child. Should the federal government ban tide pods because they might make children “attractive”?

Health Canada should learn a lesson here: You can’t change demand by affecting supply.

Canadians want edible cannabis. You don’t want ineffective chocolates with a cap of 10 mg per piece. They want candy, cereal, and chips. Recreational users desire higher doses. Medical patients require higher doses.

This underground market for edible cannabis is a direct result of the “public health” approach to edible cannabis.

Today’s cannabis moderation movement believes it can save people from themselves by limiting their access to goods and services. But they have only created a black market. One that doesn’t require packaging with “child-safe features.”

But what about the kids!?

Could someone please think of the children?

Cannabis use can have a negative impact on a child’s body due to its developing physiology. Because the liver metabolizes cannabinoids, the body can become overloaded, leading to liver damage and inflammation.

In severe cases, it can even lead to hepatitis or liver cirrhosis.

Consuming edible “copycat” cannabis disrupts a child’s delicate hormone balance and negatively impacts growth and puberty. Girls can experience irregularities in their menstrual cycle.

Copycat edible cannabis contains empty calories and no nutritional value. Consuming these products depletes essential nutrients, resulting in deficiencies in vitamins and minerals important for growth and development.

Children who use cannabis are more prone to accidents, risky behavior, injury and (in the case of teenagers) unsafe sexual activity.

Cannabis is also a diuretic, increasing urine production and promoting dehydration. Not to mention that consuming excessive amounts of cannabis will kill you… wait a minute. I’m thinking of alcohol.

All of this is true when children consume alcohol. And yet a direct comparison of cannabis restrictions to alcohol regulations paints a rather sad picture.

Health Canada either has an unscientific, irrational fear of cannabis. Or they don’t actually care about the kids.

Or the third option: people are familiar with alcohol, while cannabis is a completely new substance for many people. Cultural norms ensure that parents withhold alcohol from their children. The same is not true for cannabis.

Of course none of this is true. One of the main sources of a teenager’s drinking is their parents.

But if what has been said is true and all parents have a responsibility at all times, shouldn’t Health Canada be tasked with promoting new cultural cannabis norms? As opposed to scaremongering about edible “copycat cannabis” and alleged harm?

How does ‘copycat’ edible cannabis harm children?

How is it harming children if it mimics edible cannabis? According to Health Canada, cannabis “poisoning” in children is life-threatening. They warn that hospitals could put your child on a ventilator.

Ventilators are medical devices used when a person has trouble breathing on their own. Of course, as with everything in life, there are no solutions, only compromises. Although a ventilator can save lives, complications can arise.

Especially when, as we have seen during the Covid-19 outbreak, prolonged and invasive ventilation has resulted in lung damage, including infections such as pneumonia and barotrauma, or death.

Health Canada admits that “there have been no fatal cases reported in Canada to date” but there have been international cases of “fatal childhood cannabis intoxication”.

No reference is made to any of these cases, nor is any reference made to any of these cases. But in each case, we found that there were other contributing factors. For example, cannabis increases heart rate. For a young child with a developing heart, eating a 1000mg food item can cause serious harm.

But for a child with epilepsy, that 1000mg of food can be life-saving compared to the paltry 10mg the government is offering to medical patients.

No one has ever died from a cannabis overdose. And because of how cannabis works in the body, it’s debatable whether a fatal overdose is even possible.

Adults can handle large doses of cannabinoids because their body weight and tolerance is better than that of a child. The development phase of an adult is also completed.

Ideally, a growing brain would not consume substances like cannabis, refined sugar, or processed carbohydrates.

THC vs. refined sugar

Come to think of it, these “copycat” brands of edibles are bad for kids, whether they contain THC or not.

Check out the ingredients of an average Oreo cookie:

Sugar (Sugar, Glucose-Fructose), Wheat Flour, Modified Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, Cocoa, Wheat and/or Corn Starch, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Baking Soda, Ammonium Bicarbonate, Unsweetened Chocolate, Artificial Flavors. Contains: wheat, soy.

Is this really something you should give to a developing body and mind? Isn’t it alarming that we find it perfectly normal to have children as young as two who are addicted to sugar?

Health Canada needs to get out of the way. Stop punishing adults for what children might do.

And if kids are your biggest concern, steer them away from these brand names. Whether Sour Patch Kids contain THC is not the question.

Processed candy is an adult-only treat. If Health Canada cared about children’s health and safety, it would issue a public alert on sugar, not cannabis.