Posted on May 5, 2026 View all news
Recently, it has been widely reported that as marijuana use increases and more states legalize it, there has also been a significant rise in pets being treated for cannabis toxicity in veterinary clinics. I’d like to share my personal experience with this issue.
Over the holidays, we stayed with family at a resort in northern Scottsdale, AZ, along with our eight-month-old black Labrador puppy, Dixie. Each day, my husband walked her along a paved path between the hotel and the adjoining golf course. One day, toward the end of their walk, Dixie began acting aggressively toward passersby—growling and snarling—which was completely out of character. Just minutes later, she was running uncontrollably around the room, and we couldn’t calm her down. She had an obvious fever, dilated pupils, and was incontinent. Soon, she was unable to stand.
We rushed her to a veterinarian, who carefully listened to our story. It took her only a moment to determine the cause: cannabis toxicity. Somewhere along that walk, Dixie had ingested something containing THC that had been discarded on the ground. The veterinarian explained that in Arizona, where recreational marijuana is legal, they see cases like this “all the time.” She recognized the symptoms immediately from repeated experience. Dixie spent the next eight hours—on Christmas Eve—in the animal hospital under observation, receiving IV fluids and medication.
I was shocked by this diagnosis. While I’ve spent a lot of time learning about the dangers of marijuana, I had never really considered this risk. For the past two years, I’ve helped manage social media for Protecting South Dakota Kids, a group of volunteers working to keep recreational marijuana illegal in our state. We’ve successfully defeated legalization ballot measures in both 2022 and 2024. Even so, with only medical marijuana legal, a veterinarian at our local animal hospital in Rapid City, SD, told me they still see cannabis toxicity in pets two to three times per week.
This is clearly a growing problem. Please keep a close eye on your pets.
Alison M. Eccarius
To help raise awareness, please share Dixies’s story and the graphic below.
Every Brain Matters (EBM) is a nonprofit that was founded by Parents Opposed to Pot. We raise awareness about the dangers of THC through education, advocacy, and compassionate support to protect the health and safety of future generations and to ensure that no one faces this struggle alone.
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