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Dr. Ron Schwerzler, left, participates in Tuesday night's debate on marijuana legalization at Portland State University. At right is Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis.

(Jeff Mapes/The Oregonian)

Dr. Ron Schwerzler, who caused an uproar at a Tuesday night debate on marijuana legalization when he claimed that five Colorado children died after consuming the drug, on Wednesday retracted his statement and acknowledged he was wrong.

"I really need to retract that statement because I can't back it up," said Schwerzler, the medical director at an addictions treatment center in Eugene. He said he might have been misunderstanding accounts of children who have been hospitalized in Colorado after accidentally eating marijuana-laced candies or other edibles.

Schwerzler appeared on a panel debating the legalization initiative, Measure 91, at Portland State University that will be broadcast at 9 a.m. Sunday on KATU(2). When the discussion turned to the issue of how legalization has worked in Colorado, Schwerzler said:

"Let's concentrate on those edibles. There have been five infant children deaths in Colorado that have picked up those drugs."

Several people in the audience began rebutting Schwerzler, yelling, "not true" and "what source."

After Schwerzler retracted his claim, Peter Zuckerman, a spokesman for the Yes on 91 campaign, called it "yet another example of how opponents of marijuana reform have for 70 years been using misinformation and scare tactics" to keep the drug illegal. He argued that more accurate information about the impact of the drug would become available if it is legalized and regulated.

Schwerzler's claim came as news to two well-known critics of Colorado's law. Rachel O'Bryan of Smart Colorado and Bob Doyle of the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance, both said they didn't know of any children's deaths from accidental ingestion of marijuana edibles.

However, O'Bryan said there have been several well-publicized cases in the state of children being hospitalized after eating edible marijuana products.

Elisabeth Whitehead, a spokesman for Children's Hospital Colorado, said in an email that the hospital has had an increase in the number of children it has treated for accidental ingestion of edible marijuana products in the last several years.

In 2013, following the 2012 vote to legalize recreational marijuana, the hospital treated eight children. After retail sales began in January of this year -- the hospital had treated 13 children as of early August.

Of those 13 children, Whitehead said, seven were admitted to the intensive care unit and two required the insertion of a breathing tube.

There has been wide controversy in Colorado over the broad number of marijuana-laced candies, cookies and other products sold by retailers, and a state commission is now studying what restrictions to adopt. The state Department of of Public Health and Environment broached the idea of restricting edibles to hard lozenges and liquid drops, but backed away from that after the proposal became public.

Schwerzler emailed a statement Wednesday to leaders of the No on 91 campaign retracting his claim. Here is what he said:

After our conversation today I realized that my statement about children's deaths in Colorado is in error. There have been admits to ICUs for children who have eaten edibles and were hospitalized. I was in error and deeply regret any consequences of my actions. As a physician I make every effort to be honest with my patients and myself. When wrong I try to promptly admit it and make amends whenever possible

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