Gummies, those sugary bears, worms or button-sized candies, seem harmless — but they are far from it.
Florida’s Poison Control Centers are fielding an escalation of calls from people who have become seriously ill from overdoses of melatonin, THC and CBD gummies. Emergency department visits in Florida are rising, too. Reactions include nausea, vomiting, extreme lethargy, tremors, confusion and even trouble breathing.
The increase in gummy overdoses is triggered by availability, new habits formed during the pandemic and inconsistent dosage issues.
Gummies are easy to get and increasingly popular. In Florida, melatonin gummies are sold in grocery stores, drugstores and vitamin shops, while CBD gummies are available in convenience stores and smoke shops and THC products are sold in dispensaries (with a doctor’s recommendation).
However, the supplement industry, which includes melatonin, is not strictly regulated, so the dosage on the label may not be consistent with what’s in the bottle or bag.
Melatonin overdoses are up
A 2023 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at 25 brands of over-the-counter melatonin gummy bears and found that 88% had a dosage inconsistent with their labeling. Some were lower and some were as much as 3½ times higher than the labeled dose.
That should give Floridians pause, especially with the increasing use of melatonin triggered by sleep-disrupting stress and anxiety during the pandemic. The Sleep Foundation found an increasing number of parents are giving melatonin to children to help them fall asleep, unaware of the risks.
“You don’t know what you are getting,” said Dr. Heidi Cohen, with Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood. “They say a milligram amount, but you don’t know if that is what is in there. Too many milligrams can make you excessively sleepy and it can even be toxic for children. There have been deaths tied to melatonin overdosing.”
So far in 2023, Florida’s…
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