Colorado veterinarians have a message for medical marijuana users: Don’t get your dog stoned. Marijuana is toxic in a dog’s system, they say, and has even resulted in some canine deaths. “There are huge spikes in the frequency of marijuana ingestion in places where it’s become legal,” veterinarian Dr. Debbie Van Pelt told local CBS affiliate WTSP. “They basically have lost a lot of their fine motor control, they have a wide-based stance and they are not sure on their feet.” Before medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado, local vets say they saw only a handful of cases of dogs exposed to the substance per year. But now, those numbers have more than quadrupled. The vets say most of the dogs are getting high from medical marijuana edibles left out in the open by their owners. Marijuana edibles are cookies, brownies and other foods prepared with a butter laced with THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot. “We need people to realize it is potentially toxic and potentially fatal to their pets,” Van Pelt said.
