Calls from American dog owners to the ASPCA Poison Control Center in New York have risen from 1,436 in 2017 to almost 4,000 in 2021. The reason? Edible marijuana products left lying around the home which are attractive to dogs. And there are far more edible cannabis products in homes nowadays in America because there are only four states – Idaho, Wyoming, Tennessee and South Carolina – where all forms of marijuana are banned. In all other US stats weed is either completely legal to all or it is legal for medicinal use.
Do owners and non-dog owners alike know that dogs like to eat pretty well anything. Scrap of food on the floor or ground are far game as a meal for a dog. And there appears to be a lot of weed products lying around homes or elsewhere. Dana Long’s chihuahua-terrier cross became completely stoned recently when he ate cannabis-infused chocolate that he sniffed out in the grass near a softball game played by her daughter. She said that he was in a bad way. The veterinarian almost immediately diagnosed cannabis ingestion as the cause of his comatose state. The vet said: “This dog is stoned”. Dana Long thought she was joking.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
Dana Long did not have cannabis products at home. But it brings home the dangers of opening the doors to drug use. Cannabis sales have surged in the US to the point where there is too much cash floating around because most banks refuse to service the industry because of federal rules. The cannabis sellers are left with bags of cash.
And some people believe that today’s cannabis is too strong. News media has covered this. Modern cannabis is far stronger than in the past. There are cases of psychosis. Real and dangerous mental health issues. The brain can be damaged when used chronically. And yet we constantly read about cannabis being safe which is why it has been legalised across much of the USA.
In the meantime, watch out for Fido. He loves those cannabis biscuits. Fortunately, with one-off cannabis poisonings dogs recover and are fine within 24 hours. But can marijuana kill dogs? Dogs are not chronic users. It is the chronic human users who are destroying their lives. Personally, I think the move to legalise the drug in the US was a mistake. I believe that thought will be vindicated in a decade when they reverse the legalising laws.
