New England News

Cannabis-Related Poison Control Calls About Kids Increase

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Paul Tuthill

Published August 20, 2019 at 2:16 PM EDT

A public health investigation found that cannabis-related poison control calls about kids doubled in Massachusetts after medical marijuana was legalized.

The increase in calls to the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention at Boston Children’s Hospital occurred despite laws requiring childproof packaging and warning labels on marijuana products.

The investigation was led by UMass Amherst injury prevention researcher Jennifer Whitehill.

She spoke with WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill.

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Paul Tuthill

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.

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