JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — What may look like a snack you'd find in your pantry, may actually be a hemp product.
Dr. Dawn Sollee with the Florida/USVI Poison Information Center in Jacksonville says Delta-8 edibles are finding themselves in the wrong hands.
“We've definitely seen an increase in exposure with children, especially toddlers, that they're getting into when these products are in the home,” she said.
Already this year, the Florida Poison Information Center has received more than 60 emergency calls regarding edibles. They say this is a record-breaking number for this time of year compared to other years since 2018.
“The No. 1 place where adolescents get any products whether it's trying to commit suicide or to try and experiment is in the home. Which means they’re going to go medicine cabinets and find what is in their environment,” Sollee added.
Mike McCormick, Poison Control Spokesperson, explains that children are more at risk of consuming Delta-8 products when they are not properly stored in their home.
“You can go into a gas station, or a convenience store, or a smoke shop, and buy it without a doctor's prescription, it makes a lot of people assume that it's safe,” he explained.
However Delta-8 products are not FDA approved and because it takes longer to feel the effects. Sollee says it's easier for someone to over consume the Delta-8 product.
“They're deemed a supplement that there is no regulation about how much quantity or how many milligrams THC equivalent that they have in them,“ Sollee said.
But what parents can regulate is how children are exposed to Delta-8 products.
“If I sit there and I find a gummy worm, I'm not going to eat one quarter of the gummy worm, like the instructions may say, and I'm pretty certain that a four-year-old child is not going to either and they're going to eat the entire gummy worm,” added Sollee.
Sollee said the best preventative is putting products in a locked medical bag, instead of placing them in your medicine cabinet or pantry.