Delta 8 has grown fast in popularity nationwide, and pediatric cases are climbing right along with it. In South Carolina, it’s the youngest patients — from infants up through teens — who doctors say are bearing the brunt of the worst side effects.
ER Visits for Delta-8 THC in Kids Happening Weekly
Doctors at Greenville’s Prisma Health hospital in South Carolina say they’re increasingly alarmed by how often delta 8 overdoses are showing up in pediatric patients.
Delta 8 is a psychoactive cannabinoid comparable to Delta 9 THC, typically used by adults for both recreational and medical reasons.
“A sense of euphoria and kind of relaxed feeling,” said Prisma Health Upstate Emergency Physician Dr. Mason Jackson. “But then that also can progress, unfortunately into psychological side effects that can resemble psychosis and in some cases schizophrenia.”
Treating children in the ER for delta 8 overdoses on a near-weekly basis has left Jackson with a grim outlook on the drug.
“Things like respiratory depression or trouble breathing, seizures or low blood pressure,” Jackson said. “A lot of these times requiring ICU level care.”
Jackson also cautioned that larger doses of delta 8 can bring on hallucinations, and more commonly, paranoia, in both children and adults. Because his patients span from infants to young adults, he’s observed that the youngest children tend to experience the most severe side effects.
Dr. Mason Jackson’s Warning to Parents
Underage use of hemp-derived cannabinoids like delta 8 is a growing issue in South Carolina, not unlike underage drinking. Products are legally restricted to adults 21 and up, yet kids as young as middle school age are still finding ways to obtain them. And because these products are frequently packaged as candy, unlike alcohol, younger children and even babies are at risk of ingesting delta 8 THC by accident if it’s left within reach.
“It may say to only eat a quarter of a cookie to receive the desired effect, but kids aren’t going to eat a quarter of a cookie,” Jackson said. “They’re going to eat the whole package if it’s in front of them. And so it’s very easy for a young child who doesn’t know any better to ingest an extreme amount of this drug.”
Jackson wants parents to understand the range of cannabis products now on the market — gummies, hard candies, and other edibles, plus vapes available in multiple flavors — all of which give minors easy access to these goods.
“If you do choose to partake in it, we do ask that you use some kind of care that you do with any other chemical. Keep it away from your children. Don’t let them know that it is there,” Jackson said.
Jackson further notes that families with a history of mental illness should exercise particular caution with delta 8 products and keep them especially far from children, since prolonged THC use may trigger illnesses like schizophrenia and lead into psychotic episodes.
