One time Mike had a concerned, young mother bring her toddler who couldn’t walk, into the ER. The child appeared intoxicated, acting overly relaxed and woozy. The mother had no idea why.

Mike ran some tests. They came back positive for marijuana. And it wasn’t the level that a person might have from just breathing second-hand smoke. The tests showed a high amount, more than if the child had smoked it herself.

Mike told the mom and asked her how it could be so. She denied giving any to her daughter or smoking around her. She thought about it for a minute, and then explained that they lived in an apartment complex. It had a small park where she had taken her daughter to play that day.

Occasionally her daughter would put cigarette butts in her mouth, and that day she had. Mike felt that she was telling the truth. They came to the conclusion that the child had chewed on a joint long enough to ingest some of it.

Moral of the Story: Kids will put anything in their mouths. Be vigilant with young children in places that have lots of cigarette butts (or don’t take them there in the first place).