Two Colorado doctors claim that the death of an 11-month-old baby in 2015 was caused by a marijuana overdose, according to a new report in USA Today. If their theory is proven true, it would mark the first human death from a marijuana overdose in history.
Doctors Thomas Nappe and Christopher Hoyte of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center were the two doctors in charge of the baby at a regional poison control center when the baby came in. The cause of death was damage to the baby’s heart muscle, and the two doctors believe that happened after the baby ingested marijuana.
Nappe and Hoyte published a report in the Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine in March 2016, but they are only now speaking out about the case. "As of this writing, this is the first reported pediatric death associated with cannabis exposure," the report read.
"The only thing that we found was marijuana. High concentrations of marijuana in his blood. And that’s the only thing we found," Hoyte said. "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."
Other doctors believe the report is being overhyped and that the wording used was too harsh. "That statement is too much. It’s too much as far as I’m concerned," said Dr. Noah Kaufman, an emergency medicine specialist based in Northern Colorado. "Because that is saying confidently that this is the first case. 'We’ve got one!' And I still disagree with that."
Since Colorado has only recently legalized marijuana, the possibility that it could lead to death, even in rare cases, might get in the way of other states that attempt to pass similar legislation.
With that said, though, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration clearly states that "no death from overdose of marijuana has been reported." Similarly, the National Institute of Health reports that there is currently "insufficient evidence" to link marijuana use and death.
"We extensively ruled out almost every other cause that we can think of," Dr. Hoyte said. "Myself, our team, plus the primary team taking care of the patient, plus the coroner who did the post-mortem on the child. And we found no other reason why this young kid ended up having inflammation on his heart."
But the skeptics are still hesitant about the discovery.
"I’m going to have to call 'BS' on this one," Dr. Kaufman told USA Today. "I’m not saying that it’s not. But I think it’s a pretty big leap to say that it is."
