First Ever Marijuana Overdose Death Kills 11-Month-Old Baby, Doctors Say

The first ever fatal marijuana overdose was reported recently after doctors in Colorado said an 11-month-old boy died from exposure to the drug. The report was issued in the journal “Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine” by doctors Thomas Nappe and Christopher Hoyte, who were part of the child’s medical team at Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center.

The 11-month-old, who had no previous medical issues, went into cardiac arrest before he had a seizure and died, the report stated. The doctors said it appeared the toddler had consumed a large amount of marijuana in a short amount of time. His death did not appear to come as a result of secondhand marijuana smoke, they said.

“As of this writing, this is the first reported pediatric death associated with cannabis exposure,” the doctors wrote.

Numerous tactics were tried to save the child, including CPR, medicine and infusions, the report stated. The doctors asserted that damage to the baby’s heart muscle as a result of ingesting marijuana caused his death.

“The only thing that we found was marijuana,” Hoyte told KUSA. “High concentrations of marijuana in his blood. And that’s the only thing we found. The kid never really got better. And just one thing led to another and the kid ended up with a heart stopped. And the kid stopped breathing and died.”

The report stated the child had an “unstable motel-living situation” and that his parents admitted to “drug possession, including cannabis.” The boy’s death was the first recorded fatal marijuana overdose, the doctors said. Others, however, expressed doubts.

“The statement is too much,” Dr. Noah Kaufman, an emergency medical specialist, told KUSA. “It’s too much as far as I’m concerned. Because that is saying confidently that this is the first case. ‘We’ve got one!’ And I still disagree with that.”