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April 9, 2019 -- When he arrived at the hospital by ambulance, the 70-year-old man said he felt like he was dying. He was pale, nauseated, and reported severe chest pain. "He had had hallucinations at home," says his doctor, Alexandra Saunders, MD, chief medical resident for Dalhousie University in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. Soon, the medical team confirmed he’d had a heart attack.
He had eaten a marijuana-laced lollipop, given to him by a friend who thought it might help him sleep. "I don’t know if we can say it caused the heart attack,'' Saunders says, citing the patient's pre-existing heart disease. ''We don't have enough guidance to say what a safe dose would be."
Other health experts share her concern over CBD edibles, including chocolates, brownies and other baked goods, snacks, drinks, and even pizza.
The concern over marijuana edibles is from getting too much THC. In Colorado, where recreational use of marijuana is legal, researchers reviewed more than 2,500 cannabis-related emergency room visits from 2012 through 2016 and found that the percentage of visits was higher for inhaled cannabis, but that those using edibles were more likely to have psychiatric and cardiovascular problems.
Product labeling is an issue, too, for both hemp and marijuana CBD edibles, experts say. Consumers can't be sure that what the label lists is actually in the CBD edible. In a 2015 study, researchers evaluated 75 marijuana edibles and found only 17% accurately labeled.
Despite the popularity, neither type of CBD edible -- from hemp or marijuana -- is considered legal in the eyes of the federal government…the FDA says, it is not lawful to introduce food with added CBD or THC into interstate commerce, or to market the products either as dietary supplements or as an addition to them.
For Vital juxtapose – Read The Bad Science of Medical Cannabis
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Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science recently rolled up their sleeves to investigate CBD hepatotoxicity in mice. What they found was while this cannabis derivative is gaining significant recognition as of late in the world of wellness, people that use CBD are at an elevated risk for liver toxicity.
The findings, which were published earlier this year in the journal Molecules, suggest that while people may be using CBD as a safer alternative to conventional pain relievers, like acetaminophen, the compound may actually be just as harmful to their livers.
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OBJECTIVE: To examine prospective associations between cannabis use and risk of mental health and substance use disorders in the general adult population.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Within the general population, cannabis use is associated with an increased risk for several substance use disorders. Physicians and policy makers should take these associations of cannabis use under careful consideration.
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Calls to poison control centers and visits to emergency rooms have risen in Colorado and Washington.
DENVER — The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana are starting to grapple with teenagers’ growing use of highly potent pot, even as both boost the industry and reap huge tax windfalls from its sales.
Though the legal purchase age is 21 in Colorado and Washington, parents, educators and physicians say youths are easily getting hold of edibles infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component that causes a high, and concentrates such as “shatter,” a brittle, honey-colored substance that is heated and then inhaled through a special device.
Each poses serious risks to adolescents’ physical and mental health.
“Underage kids have unbelievable access to nuclear-strength weed,” said Andrew Brandt, a Boulder, Colo., software executive whose son got hooked while in high school.
With some marijuana products averaging 68 percent THC – exponentially greater than the pot baby boomers once smoked – calls to poison control centers and visits to emergency rooms have risen. In the Denver area, visits to Children’s Hospital Colorado facilities for treatment of cyclic vomiting, paranoia, psychosis and other acute cannabis-related symptoms jumped to 777 in 2015, from 161 in 2005.
The increase was most notable in the years following legalization of medical sales in 2009 and retail use in 2014, according to a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health published in 2018.
“Horrible things are happening to kids,” said psychiatrist Libby Stuyt, who treats teens in southwestern Colorado and has studied the health impacts of high-potency marijuana. “I see increased problems with psychosis, with addiction, with suicide, with depression and anxiety.”
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A young adult's proximity to the location of medical marijuana dispensaries appears to be associated with a higher likelihood of marijuana use, with storefront advertising having the strongest influence on behavior. A RAND Corporation study examining trends in Los Angeles County drew this conclusion and is published online in the journal Addiction. “Our findings suggest that as the marijuana retail outlets become more visible and more numerous, they may influence the way that young adults perceive and use marijuana,” study lead author Regina Shih, a RAND senior behavioral scientist, said in a news release.