New study reveals cannabis use doubles risk of dying from cardiovascular disease
The researchers, who analysed the medical data of hundreds of millions of people, warned that cannabis is "getting more potent every day".
A new study involving the analysis of the medical data of 200 million people has revealed a stark warning for regular cannabis users.
Researchers found that cannabis use doubles the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a 29% higher risk for acute coronary syndrome and a 20% higher risk for stroke. The study was published on Tuesday in the journal Heart.
In an email to CNN, senior author Émilie Jouanjus, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Toulouse, France, said, “What was particularly striking was that the concerned patients hospitalized for these disorders were young (and thus, not likely to have their clinical features due to tobacco smoking) and with no history of cardiovascular disorder or cardiovascular risk factors.”
The authors looked at data from 24 studies published from 2016 to 2023 and mostly looked at people between the ages of 19 and 59.
While adding that there were some study limitations, including potential imprecise dosage measurements, the authors of the study wrote, "Our results provide a fully comprehensive report of the recent situation towards the cardiovascular health of cannabis users.”
Despite the growing evidence of health risks involving marijuana, recreational use of the drug is currently legal in 24 states across America, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving to reclassify the drug to a less dangerous category under the Controlled Substances Act.
Meanwhile, daily marijuana users are outnumbering daily drinkers for the first time ever, according to a Carnegie Mellon University report last year, with young people primarily driving the shift.
69% of people aged 18 to 24 prefer marijuana to alcohol, according to a 2022 survey by New Frontier Data, a cannabis research firm.
Because the usage of the drug has increased, risk perception of the drug has declined, according to health experts Dr. Lynn Silver of the Public Health Institute and Stanton Glantz, emeritus professor of the University of California at San Francisco. Both experts wrote this in an editorial note that was published alongside the research.
The authors have called for the drug to "be treated like tobacco: not criminalized but discouraged," and have called for more protection for bystanders from secondhand exposure.
Health experts have also said that more research is needed on whether cardiovascular risks are limited to inhaled products, which made up the majority of cases in the meta-analysis or extend to other forms of cannabis exposure. This could include cannabis gummies, for instance.
Dr Silver also highlighted the dangers of high-potency weed which has become more widely available, adding, “The cannabis market is a moving target. It is getting more potent every day.”
“What’s being sold to people today in California is 5 to 10 times stronger than what it was in the 1970s. Concentrates can be 99% pure THC. Vapes are over 80% THC.
“A variety of chemically extracted cannabinoids can be almost pure THC, and all of these just have very different effects on people than smoking a joint in the 1970s.”
