A 43-year-old mother in Milan, Tennessee, was arrested and charged with child abuse, neglect and endangerment after her two children, aged 2 and 4, ate her THC gummies and were hospitalised.[1] Candice Hickson, 43, was booked into the Gibson County jail on 30 November, two days after the overdose.[2]

Deputies were called to a home in the 300 block of Trenton Milan Highway on 28 November and found both children unresponsive.[1] Hickson told deputies the children reached her THC gummies, which she kept in the bathroom, while she was in the bathroom, and she could not say how many they ate, according to an arrest warrant.[1] The children were treated at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis and released within 48 hours.[3] The children were placed in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services after their mother failed a drug test for methamphetamine, the district attorney general said.[3] Hickson’s bail was set at $25,000, and she was due back in Gibson County General Sessions court on 16 December with no attorney listed.[3]

THC hemp gummies are legal for adults 21 and older in Tennessee.[3] District Attorney General Frederick Agee said his office would prosecute the case within the letter of the law while helping Hickson get treatment for her addiction so she could reunite with her children.[3] Agee said he was unaware of any case in Tennessee or the US in which a child, teenager or adult died solely from eating legal hemp THC gummies.[3]