Filed Under: RE-FEAR MONGERING
The New York Times wants to scare the shit out of you. That is exactly what their latest “cannabis poisonings in kids” headline is built to do. Big numbers, scary adjectives, no context. They know fear sells, and they know most people will never dig into what those numbers actually mean.
Here is what they are not telling you.
Most of these so-called “poisonings” are nothing more than exposures. A parent calls poison control, a kid gets checked in at the ER, and someone clicks the THC poisoning box. Symptoms might be a little nausea, a heavy nap, maybe some wobbiness. Thanks to sloppy hospital coding and a system built on billing, those mild cases get lumped in with true emergencies. That is not medicine. That is mismanagement. And it is padding the stats that the New York Times loves to scream about.
From 2017 to 2021, poison control centers recorded 7,043 cannabis exposures in kids under six. In 2021, the peak year, there were 3,054. About 23 percent ended up admitted, many for observation only, and 573 went to critical care. Serious? Yes. But here is the part the Times buries. Cannabis has never killed a child. Not one.
The other truth they skip is that a huge share of these cases have nothing to do with regulated dispensary products. They come from the gas station gray market. Delta 8, Delta 10, THC O. All dressed up in packaging that looks like candy. Calls about these synthetics jumped nearly 80 percent in just two years. Kids under six made up a third of those calls and over half of ICU admissions. Two-thirds happened in the South.
advertisement
FOR THE CULTURE BY THE CULTURE
The Drug Test Lie Finally Cracks in New Mexico
New Mexico’s Senate Bill 129 challenges the long standing assumption that a positive cannabis test equals impairment. By separating outdated drug testing from actual workplace safety, the bill aims to protect medical cannabis patients from job discrimination while preserving employer authority over real on the job risk and misconduct.
How Cannabis Can Cost You Your Gun
Federal law still allows cannabis use to strip Americans of firearm rights without proof of danger or misuse. As the Supreme Court weighs United States v. Hemani, courts are confronting whether the government can continue punishing people based on status rather than conduct in a country where cannabis is legal in most states.
Reefer Report Card Vol. 32: Kicking the Can Again
This week’s Reefer Report Card tracks a familiar pattern in cannabis policy: delay dressed as progress. Federal lawmakers punted again on hemp regulation, states flirted with dismantling legal markets, and patients were left waiting. Oversight weakened, accountability faded, and reform stalled. Another week in weed, graded.
advertisement
And while we are here, let us call out the stupid motherfuckers who leave their THC gummies where a toddler can grab them. If you treat 100 milligrams of THC like it is a bag of Skittles, you are the problem. Lock it up. Put it high. Stop pretending this is about the plant when it is really about negligence.
Regulation works. Virginia banned Delta 8 and enforced clear packaging rules in 2023. Pediatric ER visits for cannabis ingestion dropped 21.5 percent by the end of the year. California let things slide, and between 2016 and 2023, calls for cannabis exposures in kids under six jumped 469 percent. Edible cases shot up 971 percent.
The New York Times’ “poisoning” panic is built on three things. Bad parenting. Bad hospital data. Bad journalism. The plant is not the villain here. Stupidity is. Sloppy regulation is. A media machine that would rather keep you scared than keep you informed is.
©2025 Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This content is the exclusive property of Pot Culture Magazine and may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical reviews.
FOR THE CULTURE BY THE CULTURE
WHEN THE UN CAN’T STOP LEGAL WEED
As cannabis reform accelerates worldwide, the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board continues warning that decades old drug treaties still apply. This feature examines the INCB’s actual authority, the…
The Federal Hemp Blueprint That Isn’t
A proposed federal hemp framework is being sold as long overdue clarity for a chaotic market. But beneath the promise of order, the structure reveals rigid caps, unresolved…
Reefer Report Card Vol. 31: The Retreat Becomes Routine
Reefer Report Card Vol. 31 examines a week where cannabis reform quietly retreated. Ballot rollbacks gained traction, federal action stalled, and patients remained unprotected. Legal weed stayed popular,…
Discover more from POT CULTURE MAGAZINE
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
