Is Cannabis Legalization Eliciting Abusive Behaviors in Parents? A Case Report

The interest in cannabis, cannabis-based compounds, and treatments is rapidly growing along with the legalization of marijuana in many countries and widespread use of cannabis derivatives in medical products. A growing body of literature is warning about possible unintentional intoxication in children because of unregulated and unsupervised use of cannabinoids by parents; to our knowledge, very rarely have parental self-prescription and self-administration to their children (affected by neurologic or other disorders or no disorders at all) been reported. We report a 4-year-old child, suffering from an anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis, who was found unpredictably positive for cannabis and other illicit substances after drug testing was performed in order to investigate the child's treatment-resistant behavioral disturbances. Toxicologic analyses were also extended to the child's parents, who finally disclosed that they had deliberately administered a cannabis-derived product (cannabidiol extract) as a home remedy for managing their child's behavior. Careless with regard to the possible adverse effects and certain that the product was legal, they presumed there was no need for them to inform the physicians in charge of treating the child of this practice.