Cannabis companies, like all other businesses, rely on marketing for success. And luckily, companies like Alphabet Inc. GOOG are now becoming more inclusive of cannabis ads.
But as cannabis shops proliferate nationwide, observers are raising concerns that the marketing of certain products is to blame for the undesirable trend of increased abuse of cannabis by children and youth.
“If you go through a cannabis dispensary right now, it’s almost absurd how youth-oriented a lot of the packaging and the products are,” Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, told Associated Press.
There have been 3,054 cases of children accidentally eating edible cannabis reported in 2021 compared to 207 in 2017, according to findings recently published in the journal Pediatrics. Another study published in Clinical Toxicology showed similar results, with a staggering 245% increase in cannabis abuse among adolescents since 2000.
The newly reported case of a child being taken to the hospital after taking a THC edible at a Phoenix elementary school proves the point.
Two sixth graders took the edibles, according to fire crews who were called to Shaw Butte Elementary School near 21st Avenue and Peoria, reported Fox 10 Phoenix. While one student went home, the other was hospitalized in stable condition.
More Regulation Needed
Certain states are coming up with rules to offset the trend. New York, for example, forbids marketing and advertising that “is designed in any way to…
