Cannabis-Related Pediatric ER Visits Decline in Virginia Under Intoxicating Hemp Restrictions

Cannabis-related pediatric emergency room visits in Virginia have declined 21.5% after the state passed regulations on intoxicating hemp-derived products, according to Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association data outlined by WTOP News. The new laws regulating the products went into effect last July and requires CBD and THC products to have clear labels that include ingredients and places restrictions on the chemical concentrations in the products. 

Julian Walker, vice president of communications with Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association said that the organization “also saw a reduction between 2022 and 2023, and a reduction between the first half of 2023 and the second half of 2023.”  

“So big picture, that’s what the numbers show. That after several years of a trend of increasing pediatric emergency department visits for cannabis exposure, after this law took effect on July 1, 2023; in the six months after that, we saw the number of visits that we had been recording in hospital emergency departments, we saw them decline.” — Walker to WTOP News 

Walker said the shift “coincides with the implementation and effective date of this new state law,” but that “to definitively say ‘this is causing this’ or ‘this is attributable to this,’” the organization “would need to do deeper data analysis.”