The Importance of Locking Up Your Cannabis
A Response to Morgan McCoy of Florida
So I’m sure everyone has heard about the 6-year-old girl that mistakenly ingested a THC gummy at a get-together in Florida. When the little girl’s mother; Morgan McCoy, discovered this, she claimed her daughter was having a seizure and called an ambulance. Then, she posted on Facebook about how the cannabis industry needs to change. You can read an article about the incident (including the FB post) here from parents.com.
Not only did I find the way this parent spoke about her daughter online disgusting (she called her 6-year-old daughter a “Candy-Whore”); but I found that her story and her reactions seemed a bit ridiculous and downright fishy. It seemed far-fetched and over-explained.
As I was reading through her story, some things just didn’t add up and from my experience, when people over-explain situations like this, they’re usually trying to hide something.
Morgan McCoy goes on about how everyone was a “Card-Carrying Cannabis User”. If that was actually the case, I honestly feel like there wouldn’t have EVER been an edible left unsupervised. I get it – stuff happens…but to me – It all sounded very far-fetched. On the other hand, I wasn’t there so I really don’t know – these are just my thoughts.
My point is: I’m a cannabis patient; as is my wife. We have a young daughter of our own – who absolutely loves candy (like most 6-year-old kids). Because we use cannabis as our medicine, we always have edibles, flower, extracts, and even tinctures on hand – but we ALWAYS keep it locked in a case, or at the very least -somewhere our child absolutely wouldn’t be able to reach it.
One of the first things I did when I became a cannabis patient was purchase an air-tight case that I could lock with a padlock. Why? Because as we all know -Kids are curious. I once found my daughter eating a house spider!
My daughter knows what cannabis is -it’s medicine. She knows what it smells, and looks like, and knows that it’s something that is only for adults. She is hyper-aware of what it smells like because we have already begun educating her. So, if for any reason she encounters it outside of our home (which all kids will one day); she will know not to touch it and to go tell an adult to lock it up.
We teach gun safety to children; we teach them about alcohol and to stay away from it (hopefully); We need to start educating them about things like cannabis as well.
Accidents happen; everyone knows that. There were so many adults in this situation that were certified cannabis patients (as stated by the mother) -And not a single one of them thought: “Let’s gather up all the cannabis and lock it up where the kids can’t get it”. That is inexcusable in my opinion; especially with the number of children they had there.
Then there’s the whole thing about the packaging of cannabis edibles. In my opinion; the industry should move away from packaging edibles exactly like candy and foods that children regularly encounter. That’s not to say the packaging shouldn’t be appealing, but our culture and community deserve better -A higher standard if you will.
Maryland just passed regulations in April 2020 in regard to the appearance and strength of edibles, and cannabis packaging, marketing, and advertising. Read the Maryland Cannabis updates here.
In closing, I do feel bad for the little girl; I’m sure it was a frightening experience for her -Especially with how her mother and other people reacted to the whole situation. My advice to Morgan McCoy is to educate your children and yourself. Lock up your medicine (like you and your group should have done) and don’t call on the cannabis industry to take the blame for your shortcomings.
If you think your child has taken cannabis and is having a bad reaction to it call the U.S. Poison Control Hotline – 1-800-222-1222
Maryland Home Grow Consulting 