Now that marijuana is legal in Canada, the BC SPCA is out with a warning for pet owners.
“We are expecting to potentially see an increased in exposures and toxicity,” Dr. Emilia Gordon, the organization’s senior manager of animal health, said.
She says even now, the numbers are high.
“The use of cannabis is already so widespread in B.C. and we do already see a fair number of exposures.”
Gordon says dogs are very sensitive to THC, pot edibles tend to have a higher concentration of THC in them, and dogs love to get into human food.
“Those tend to be the worst, like they can have seizures, there are reports of dogs that even go into comas or even die from exposure to those higher levels.”
But there may be some positive aspects to cannabis and pets. Gordon says research is being done about the positive impact CBD has on animal’s health.
She says with pot legalization, they plan to learn a lot over the coming years.