First ever marijuana overdose death? Let’s review what “potential link” means

Enlarge / Even this baby is annoyed. (credit: Getty | VW Pics)

The US Drug Enforcement Administration plainly reports that no death from an overdose of marijuana has ever been reported-a tidbit often repeated by cannabis enthusiasts when discussing the potential harms of the popular drug. But this week, many news outlets coughed up headlines saying that the famous fact had gone up in smoke.

Those media reports dubbed the death of an 11-month-old Colorado boy as the first marijuana overdose death ever reported. They based that startling stat on a case report published in the August edition of Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine.

But that's not what the case report said-at all. And the doctors behind the report (who likely spent the week with their palms on their faces) are trying to set the record straight.

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