The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its report on a 19-yearold male student who leapt to his death from a Denver hotel window after ingesting a marijuana cookie in March 2014.
The report, “Notes from the Field: Death Following Ingestion of an Edible Marijuana Product — Colorado, March 2014,” took 16 months to complete, but it seems more perfunctory than revelatory. And it leaves too many questions unanswered. (Read the full report at 1.usa.gov/1MJNbDP.)
The incident, not surprisingly, received immense press attention since it happened less than three months after the state began selling recreational cannabis. Despite the exposure, real information about what happened that night has been sketchy. I was really looking forward to a more complete explanation.
Its most important finding is that “this was the first reported death in Colorado linked to marijuana consumption without evidence of polysubstance use since the state approved recreational use of marijuana in 2012.”
The police report indicated that the student was “marijuana naïve” and had no history of drug or alcohol use or mental illness. A 23-year-old friend bought the cookie, and the police report says “the sales clerk had instructed the buyer and decedent to divide each cookie into sixths, each piece containing approximately 10 mg of THC, the serving size, and to ingest one serving at a time.” (Though it’s suggested, the report doesn’t explain whether the 19-year-old was actually in the store to receive this direction.)
Apparently, a half hour after consuming 10 milligrams of the cookie and feeling no effects, the decedent ate the rest, and soon after “reportedly exhibited erratic speech and hostile behavior” before his death two hours later.
Shouldn’t at least part of the message here be that friends shouldn’t be giving their underage friends marijuana? Or that people have to take some responsibility for their own actions?
That he “reportedly” spoke erratically and was aggressive doesn’t offer much insight into his actual state of mind, and the researchers apparently didn’t talk with anyone who was with the man during this period, including the friend who gave it to him. Wouldn’t those people have been able to shed more light on what the young man was actually saying and doing? Were they concerned about his wellbeing?
Instead, the report relies on the police report and an autopsy performed 19 hours later. Tests for other drugs, including bath salts, proved negative. “The only confirmed findings were cannabinoids (7.2 ng/mL delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] and 49 ng/mL delta-9 carboxy-THC, an inactive marijuana metabolite).” That’s just slightly over the legal whole blood limit of delta-9 THC for driving a vehicle in Colorado.
The store that sold the item voluntarily turned over the other 67 cookies it had to the Denver Police Department, which were tested and found to be with in required THC levels. Cannabis works differently with everyone, especially a first-time user, but 65 milligrams of THC is not an outrageous or unusual dosage.
The researchers note that the state has already reacted to the packaging and labeling of edibles, instituting changes already that include clear demarcation of 10 milligrams edible pieces, with more rules in place by 2016. They suggest, rightly, that other states should consider clear packaging of edible products.
But what I find more interesting than this being the “first” is that it’s the “only” case. More than five million edible products were consumed by people in Colorado in the first year, and yet the researchers conclude that this one incident “illustrates a potential danger associated with recreational edible marijuana use.” Perhaps, but nothing I’ve read indicates that higher THC levels correspond to psychosis, and the researchers didn’t look into the man’s history, so we just don’t know.
Noting that “the police report did not indicate whether the sales clerk provided specific instructions for how long to wait between ingesting each serving,” the report also suggests a “need for improved public health messaging to reduce the risk for overconsumption of THC.”
I guess I can’t argue with that. But what else could the state have done to reduce the risk? It was purchased legally. The clerk told the buyer to divide it and take it slowly, which is what the state emphasizes in its public education efforts. The THC level was on the label. A clerk telling them to wait a specific time before taking more wouldn’t have changed a thing.
I still question whether there’s more going on here than mere overconsumption. Blaming the substance just seems too easy.
You can hear Leland discuss his most recent column and Colorado cannabis issues each Thursday morning on KGNU. http://news.kgnu.org/weed
