Parents are being warned to be vigilant about cannabis jellies in the run up to Halloween.
It comes after a number of children were hospitalised after accidently eating the sweets this year, with six under the age of 10 treated in an eight week period alone.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has issued a warning that the packaging resembles popular brands of sweets and children might unwittingly consume them.
The authority says the prevalence of these edible products containing THC in communities and schools around the country is a growing cause for concern.
Halloween Festivities
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) says: "There is growing availability in Ireland of food products, in particular jelly sweets that contain significant amounts of the illicit narcotic drug THC.
"The FSAI issues this warning in advance of the Halloween festivities next week where small children, teenagers and adults will be celebrating and where there is an increased risk of people, particularly children, unwittingly consuming these types of products that are intentionally packaged to resemble popular brands of jellies in order to avoid detection.
"The high concentrations (up to 50mg/jelly) of THC in these illicit edible sweets can pose serious health risks, particularly to teenagers and children of all ages whose neurological, physical and physiological development could be impacted negatively.
"Depending on the THC concentration, eating one of these jellies can mean ingesting a level of THC that is 5-10 times higher than that inhaled when smoking cannabis. The real concern is that children are not aware of the dangers and if they manage to gain access to a bag of these jellies, they will rarely eat just one and therefore, overdosing is a very likely outcome.
"Unlike the almost immediate effects from smoking cannabis, there is at least a thirty-minute time delay from consumption of cannabis edibles until the initial effects are felt. This poses a serious risk to those who have eaten these jellies who might mistakenly believe that they need to consume several jellies to feel an effect and then find they have overdosed when it is too late.
"Cannabis toxicity can cause cognitive and motor impairment and in the case of children this can be extreme, lasting up to 24 to 36 hours after consumption.
FSAI calls for vigilance to dangers of jelly sweets containing cannabis in run up to Halloween. For further information, please see https://t.co/Ny8stw0Ezr #PublicHealth pic.twitter.com/U0in9Y8lAH
— FoodSafetyAuthority (@FSAIinfo) October 20, 2021
Dr Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive, FSAI says the accidental consumption of edible cannabis products by children is extremely worrying: "We know adults and/or teenagers are ordering these illegal products from online or other illegal sources for their own personal use. However, they often have no understanding of the real health dangers of these products and are careless or reckless in putting young children’s health at risk by allowing them access to these products.
"We are working closely with other Government agencies including the Health Service Executive’s Environmental Health Service and the Public Analyst’s Laboratory, Dublin; An Garda Síochana; Revenue’s Customs Service; Forensic Science Ireland; the State Laboratory and; the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland to detect and stop the import of these illegal food products into Ireland. We welcome any information from the public in the national effort to curb the availability of these illegal products and to protect our children and young people."
Hospital
Six children were admitted to a Dublin hospital with accidental poisoning during an eight week period.
A study in the Irish Medical Journal has examined the cases which began in March, with five of those admitted to Temple Street Children's Hospital under the age of six.
In one case, a ten year old ingested his 26 year old sibling's cannabis sweets.
One of the children suffered seizures, and all six cases were reported to Tusla.
