As Illinois joins the ever-growing club of states with legal cannabis, one of the world’s largest and oldest veterinary organizations is urging people to exercise caution with marijuana consumption around animals in their care.
In a press release on Wednesday, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) encouraged pet owners to help make sure that an increase in legalization doesn’t lead to more pet poisonings, which they say has been on the rise in recent years.
According to an ASPCA Poison Control Center report from early 2019, there was a 765 percent increase in calls about cannabis ingestion by animals over the past year.
“While marijuana use can be a pleasurable experience for people, it can be scary and dangerous for dogs,” wrote AVMA. “Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance in marijuana that produces a high for humans, is toxic to dogs, and can cause vomiting, incoordination, depression, sleepiness, or excitation, low blood pressure, low body temperature, and seizures.”
AVMA says that deaths are rare, but a few cases have been reported, citing a 2012 study showing a correlation between the number of medical cannabis licenses and the number of marijuana toxicosis cases in two veterinary hospitals in Colorado.
The five-year (2005-2012) study reported that two dogs died after consuming edibles made with medical grade tetrahydrocannabinol butter.
AVMA encourages people to keep cannabis products where pets cannot access them and to bring the animal to a veterinarian as quickly as possible if it is showing signs of marijuana toxicity such as loss of equilibrium, rigidity, nervousness, drooling, or dribbling urine.
