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By Lynn Allison - 16 Mar 2018
A major new study claims that smoking marijuana dramatically increases a person’s risk of suffering a heart attack and other cardiovascular events. The study authors, along with top cardiologists across the country, are calling for more research into the use of medicinal and recreational cannabis in light of the startling new evidence.
Researchers found that over a 5-year period, regular users as young as in their early 30s were 4.6 times more likely to have a cardiac-related illness than those who did not smoke the drug.
Scientists from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio presented their findings at the recent American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference held in Washington, D.C.
While most medical concerns over the use of cannabis have been linked to mental disorders and depression, researchers also discovered a link between marijuana use and increased risk of stroke and heart failure.
“Even when we corrected for known risk factors, we still found a higher rate of both stroke and heart failure in those patients using the drug,” says Dr. Aditi Kalla, a cardiologist at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. “That leads us to believe that there is something else going on besides just obesity and or diet-related cardiovascular side effects.
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EXECUTIVE HIGHLIGHTS: Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana in 2012, followed by Alaska and Oregon in 2014. The District of Columbia legalized cultivation and possession in 2014. Today’s highly potent marijuana represents a growing and significant threat to public health and safety, a threat that is amplified by a new marijuana industry intent on profiting from heavy use. State laws allowing marijuana have, in direct contradiction to federal law, permitted this industry to flourish, influencing both policies and policy makers. While the consequences of these policies will not be known for decades, early indicators are troubling. This report, reviewed by prominent scientists and researchers, serves as an evidence-based guide to what we currently observe in various states.
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- Researchers highlighted the dangers of a super-strength strain of cannabis
- A study found 'skunk' was responsible for a quarter of psychosis cases
- But weaker forms such as hash don't carry the same risk of mental illness
By Stephen Adams for The Mail on Sunday PUBLISHED: 15 February 2015
Super-strength strains of cannabis are responsible for up to a quarter of new cases of psychotic mental illness, scientists will warn this week.
The potent form of the drug, known as 'skunk', is so powerful that users are three times more likely to suffer a psychotic episode than those who have never tried it.
The study, leaked to The Mail on Sunday ahead of its publication, is set to reignite the debate around Britain's drug laws, and will add weight to calls for a tougher stance towards those caught dealing or in possession of cannabis.
Scientists are warning that super-strength strains of cannabis are responsible for up to a quarter of new cases of psychotic mental illness (file image)
According to Crime Survey figures for England and Wales, over a million youngsters aged 16 to 24 smoke cannabis. Regular users are most at risk, prompting experts to warn that youngsters need to be aware of the dangers of skunk, which has been specially cultivated to be four times as strong as the cannabis smoked by previous generations.
The researchers, led by a team at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London, conclude there is an 'urgent need… to inform young people about the risks of high-potency cannabis' amid a worldwide trend towards relaxing drug laws.
They will reveal there is a key difference between potent skunk strains and 'hash'. Those who used these 'weaker' forms did not seem to suffer the same increase in risks.
Psychosis is defined as a form of mental illness where people experience delusions, hallucinations, or both at the same time. Associated with conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, some people are so badly affected that they end up committing suicide or seriously harming others because they believe they are being ordered to do so by voices in their heads.
The findings will add substance to a 2012 report by the Schizophrenia Commission, which recommended the need for 'warnings about the risks of cannabis' to mental health.
That report was chaired by schizophrenia expert Professor Sir Robin Murray, who also played a key part in the new study. It looked at cannabis use in two groups, each containing about 400 people, from 2005 to 2011. Those in the first group had all suffered 'first-episode psychosis'– a diagnosed first occurrence of the disorder.
The research appears to show a striking difference between the effects of skunk and the weaker form of cannabis, hash resin, revealing that hash seemed not to add to a person's risk of psychosis – even if smoked daily
The second group were volunteers who agreed to answer questions about themselves – including on cannabis use and mental health history – for a study. Some had suffered psychosis, others not. They were not told the nature of the project.
The academics found those in the first group were more likely to smoke cannabis daily – and to smoke skunk – than those in the second. The researchers say: 'Skunk use alone was responsible for 24 per cent of adults presenting with first-episode psychosis to the psychiatric services in South London.'
This was almost double the previous highest estimate of psychiatric cases linked to the drug – 13 per cent – from a 2002 Dutch study.
The latest research, to be published in The Lancet, concludes: 'People who used cannabis or skunk every day were roughly three times more likely to have a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder than were those who never used cannabis.'
Skunk is shorthand for around 100 strains of cannabis that contain a high proportion of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the drug's primary psychoactive compound. But the levels of another compound, cannabidiol – which may have anti-psychotic effects – are the reverse, high in hash and virtually zero in skunk.
The researchers speculate this could be due to the differing chemical make-up of the two forms: 'The presence of cannabidiol [in hash] might explain our results, which showed that hash users do not have any increase in risk of psychotic disorders compared with non-users.'
Michael Ellis, a Tory member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: 'This powerful new study illustrates that those in government and the police must be careful to send out the right message. Cannabis isn't a harmless drug: it can ruin lives.'Read more
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Associated Press Published: February 12, 2018
This July 7, 2017, photo taken the FBI and released via the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle shows the aftermath of a cabin on Delta Flight 129 from Seattle to Beijing, after authorities say flight attendants struggled with a passenger who lunged for an exit door. A Florida man who brawled with flight attendants and passengers when he tried to open the exit door of a Delta Air Lines flight bound from Seattle to China has pleaded guilty to four felony charges. The Seattle Times reports 24-year-old Joseph Daniel Hudek IV, of Tampa, pleaded guilty Friday, Feb. 9, 2018, in U.S. District Court in Seattle to one count of interfering with a flight-crew member and three counts of assault on an aircraft with a potential deadly weapon.
SEATTLE — A Tampa man who authorities say wielded a wine bottle in a brawl with flight attendants and passengers as he tried to open the door of a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to China has pleaded guilty to four felony charges.
Joseph Hudek IV, 24, entered the plea Friday in federal court in Seattle to one count of interfering with a member of a flight crew and three counts of assault on an aircraft with a potential deadly weapon, The Seattle Times reported.
The plea came after Hudek filed an affidavit with the court stating that he bought and ingested "edible marijuana" in Seattle just before his flight.
"Later, while on the airplane and after I had consumed the marijuana, I began to feel dramatically different," Hudek said in the document…
- Cigarettes and pot linked to teen psychosis
- Skunk user who bit, throttled and stabbed his mother 23 times in drug-induced frenzy leaving her fighting for her life is detained in hospital indefinitely
- Marijuana addiction is real, and teenage users are most at risk
- The Influence of Cannabis on the Adolescent Brain