Mother charged with murder after four-year-old son dies from eating weed gummies

A mother has been charged after her four-year-old son died after eating gummies containing THC.

NBC News reported that Virginian mother Dorothy Annette Clements has been charged with murder and child neglect after her son Tanner died after consuming weed gummies.

According to the outlet, authorities said the 30-year-old mother didn’t help her son soon enough after he was found unresponsive in a town near Spotsylvania.

The child was put on life support on May 6 and died two days later.

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“His condition didn’t get any better and it got to the point where he was on life support, and the family decided to take him off,” a spokesperson from Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office told McClatchy News.

The mother told a police detective that Tanner had consumed half a gummy, and, shortly after, she contacted poison control, who said that her son would be ok, according to search warrant documents.

However, the autopsy report confirmed a ‘large amount’ of THC was in the boy's system.

Troy Skebo of the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office told CNN: “Detectives believe the child ingested a large amount of THC gummies. The attending doctor told Detectives that if medical intervention occurred shortly after ingestion, it could have prevented death.

“Statements made to Detectives by the mother did not match evidence seized at the home.”

Now, the mother could face up to 40 years in prison.

Officials have also warned parents to keep their children away from cannabis edibles, particularly ones that look like candy.

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While there have been few cases of marijuana overdoses, medical experts believe these deaths are linked to pre-existing medical conditions.

In 2015, an 11-month-old baby died in Colorado with his blood and urine containing traces of marijuana, as per NBC News.

But, despite the autopsy report confirming that the infant died from myocarditis elicited by cannabis, the director of the Addiction Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine, Yasmin Hurd, suspects he had a heart problem as well.

She told NBC News: “[the drug] could have been the last straw.”

The case also sparked headlines across the country; however, Northern Colorado emergency room physician, Noah Kaufman, believes more research needs to be conducted when determining the exact cause of death.

“You just can’t make those statements because then what happens is lay people say, ‘Oh my God, did you hear a kid died from marijuana poisoning?’ and it can be sensationalized,” he told The Washington Post.

“It’s not based on reality. It’s based on somebody kind of jumping the gun and making a conclusion, and scientifically you can’t do that.”

Topics: News, Parenting, Drugs, Health, Science

Charisa Bossinakis