A Florida mom is urging stricter packaging regulations on THC products after her 6-year-old daughter allegedly ate a Faded Fruits cannabis-infused gummy thinking it was candy.
Morgan McCoy of Pensacola took to Facebook on June 1 detailing how her child, McKendrick, happened upon the gummy and ended up in the hospital.
It all began over Memorial Day weekend, when McCoy visited her in-laws in Jacksonville. A group of friends, who allegedly are legal, medical marijuana patients, were gathered at the house. While McCoy left the house to see a relative, her husband stayed behind.
"One of my in-laws' friends were staying in the room we normally stay in...This friend has 2 children," McCoy wrote in the Facebook post. "One of them had taken a running dive into the pool but alas... this child is two... so the parent went for a swim while fully clothed to get their child. They had this bag of gummies (well gummy, singular) in their pocket. Frazzled, I'm sure, they ran in and got out of the wet clothes.. grabbed the bag and put it in the dresser between some clothes while they went to change. My … daughter went in looking for HER clothes, because this is the room she normally stays in... she came across the bag and, like any 6 year old would... She ate the candy."
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Several hours later, McCoy said she returned to the house to find the kids asleep, drained from playing in the sun all day.
"All of a sudden the parent came outside and told me that my daughter may have taken a THC gummy... I ran inside and calmly picked her up and moved her from the ground to the couch. She couldn't open her eyes, she was completely non-responsive and when I laid her down she kind of braced herself like she felt like she was falling."
The 6-year-old then began seizing, McCoy said, before she was taken to the hospital.
"I was up all night with my husband watching those machines. Her breaths per minute would drop to single digits at times, her heart rate would shoot up to alarming levels at others," McCoy recalled. "It was one of the scariest moments of my life and I never want another parent to go through that."
"Had the packaging been what it should be and not this bulls***, my daughter wouldn't have looked twice at it."
McCoy said she takes THC daily, at about 10mg per dose in several doses each day. To mitigate pain, or to fall asleep, she takes 25mg. While it isn't clear where the product was purchased, qualified patients in Florida may receive medical marijuana and low-THC cannabis, according to The Florida Department of Health Office of Medical Marijuana Use.
"One Package has 500mg of THC...500 MG. That is 50 times what I would take as an experienced THC consumer... imagine how terrifying this was for my child. I know I can't stop thinking about it."
In a more recent post, McCoy mentioned she received backlash and criticism over her parenting skills. She said the criticism is worth it if her story can spark change in regulations.