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[RustyNails]

UN: Marijuana-related health problems on rise in US

Some say cannabis with higher levels of THC may be partly to blame for rise in ailments

June 26, 2014 7:40AM ET
by Amel Ahmed @amelscript

More Americans are seeking treatment for cannabis-related health problems, a U.N. agency said Thursday in a report that is likely to intensify the U.S. debate on marijuana legalization.

Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to legalize recreational marijuana after voters backed the move in 2012.

Citing statistics from before the legalization took effect, the number of people in the United States age 12 or older who used cannabis at least once in the previous year rose to 12.1 percent in 2012, from 10.3 percent in 2008, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Increased pot use by Americans is partly fueled by a misperception of the health risks, the UNODC report said. It cautioned that although the public may perceive marijuana to be the least harmful of illicit drugs, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people seeking treatment for cannabis-use disorders over the past decade.

In the U.S. from 2006 to 2010, there was a 59 percent increase in cannabis-related hospital emergency room visits and a 14 percent increase in cannabis-related treatment admissions, the report said.

Additionally, the report found that there was more tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in seized cannabis crops in the U.S, with levels rising to 11.9 percent in 2011, from 8.7 percent in 2007. THC is the main mind-altering chemical found in marijuana.

Because of the relationship between increased potency and dependence, that trend may be contributing to the increased risk of drug-use disorders, the report said.

The primary reason for increased levels of THC is genetic selection by cannabis producers, according to Dr. Mahmoud A. ElSohly, as quoted by news website Politifact.

Producers are breeding marijuana plants with the highest concentration of THC with the aim of creating a product that enables them to sell smaller volumes for higher prices, according to ElSohly, who manages the federal government’s research marijuana farm at the University of Mississippi.

The legalization of cannabis, coupled with higher THC levels, has begun to raise alarm bells in the medical community.

“The current wave of decriminalization may lead to more widespread use, and it is important that cardiologists be made aware of the potential for marijuana-associated adverse cardiovascular effects that may begin to occur in the population at a greater frequency,” said a study published in January in the American Journal of Cardiology.

The study noted an association between marijuana use and serious health problems, including sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction and stroke.

“The potential for increased use of marijuana in the changing legal landscape suggests the need for the community to intensify research regarding the safety of marijuana use and for cardiologists to maintain an awareness of the potential for adverse effects,” the study said.

Initiation and use among youths and young adults is of particular concern because of the established risk of harm, the U.N. report noted.

Risks posed to youth include lung problems, memory impairment, risk of heavy dependence, mental health problems and poor cognitive performance, according to the U.N. report.

Noting the increase in THC levels, the National Institutes of Health warned in 2013 that "daily use can have stronger effects on a developing teen brain than it did 10 or 20 years ago."

Although Washington state and Colorado have legalized recreational marijuana and 20 more have legalized medical use, federal law still prohibits sales.

In December, Uruguay became the first country to legalize growing, selling and smoking marijuana — a pioneering social experiment aimed at wresting control of the crop from dangerous criminals. The experiment is being closely watched by other countries, including the U.S., that are debating the drug’s legalization.

Critics say legalization will not only increase consumption but also open the door to the use of much harder drugs, including heroin.

But with the U.S.-led war on drugs facing mounting criticism for its failure to curb the illicit business, success in Uruguay could fuel legalization efforts elsewhere.

Here's the study linked in the article: Adverse Cardiovascular, Cerebrovascular, and Peripheral Vascular Effects of Marijuana Inhalation: What Cardiologists Need to Know

 

[Angelus Errare]

Time to strengthen the War on Drugs™

'Mericuh!

 

[Spider-Man]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

 

[CrankyJay]

Mind your own damn business, UN.

 

[Impeccable]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

I am, apparently... lacking a brain.

 

[Ushojax]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

Smoking and alcohol fuck with your health too.

But everybody with a brain knows that.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

What the fuck are they talking about? You get these sentences about general emergency room visits on the rise, but literally none of the information you want: why? What are they going to hospitals for? Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Marijuana-related health problems" is just an easy scare. Give us the meat.

 

[Spider-Man]

Smoking and alcohol fuck with your health too.

But everybody with a brain knows that.

Yes all three do and people still do it, that's the point.

 

[joelseph]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

Being so close to the top makes me want to believe this is sarcasm, but the junior account and subject matter is leading me to believe otherwise.

 

[Halo 2]

I've chain smoked bud for almost 5 years now and I think I'm ok.

In this time one of my smoking buddies started hearing voices, went to weed rehab. But he was pretty fucked up before the weed.
^I have no doubt in my mind that the weed sped up this problem and was a factor causing it to worsen.^ (everybodys mental make up is different.

A few buddies dropped out of school as well, weed attracts a lot of people who should not be smoking it in the first place.

That said, *lights up a blunt*

 

[Aquamarine]

Smoking and alcohol fuck with your health too.

But everybody with a brain knows that.

Smoking and alcohol fuck you up more than weed.

But hey, those are perfectly fine and dandy. Just gotta be the magical age of 18 / 21.



And what about gambling? Poor sods gambling away their life savings, hopelessly addicted. That can fuck your life up pretty bad as well.

 

[Angelus Errare]

What the fuck are they talking about? You get these sentences about general emergency room visits on the rise, but literally none of the information you want: why? What are they going to hospitals for? Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Marijuana-related health problems" is just an easy scare. Give us the meat.

Correlation man, there are people going to the emergency room and more and more of them are smoking teh weeds; THUS WEEDZ IS SENDIN PEOPLE TO TEH EMERGENCY ROOM!!!

 

[Funky Papa]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

Could you elaborate in which way the ill effects of cannabis differ depending on the drug's usage?

 

[Spider-Man]

Being so close to the top makes me want to believe this is sarcasm, but the junior account and subject matter is leading me to believe otherwise.

So because I wrote that smoking weed for casual use has adverse effects and that I'm a junior member that just means that I wrote that for comedy? Alright.

 

[samwizered]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

Hahah, good one.

 

[Bloodrage]

And I'm 100% certain that addiction isn't one of them.

 

[And_Gignac]

including sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction and stroke.

Correlation man, there are people going to the emergency room and more and more of them are smoking teh weeds; THUS WEEDZ IS SENDIN PEOPLE TO TEH EMERGENCY ROOM!!!

And I am sure most of them were people having a panic attack over a bad trip.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

So because I wrote that smoking weed for casual use has adverse effects and that I'm a junior member that just means that I wrote that for comedy? Alright.

Explain exactly what you meant by that.

You're being called out for just stating a generic hyperbolic platitude. What do you actually mean?

 

[vas_a_morir]

Smoking and alcohol fuck with your health too.

But everybody with a brain knows that.

I don't get your point. Are you saying these things should be illegal, as well? Or, that because they are legal and bad for you, all things that are bad for your health should be legal as well?

 

[SocksAndShoes]

What the fuck are they talking about? You get these sentences about general emergency room visits on the rise, but literally none of the information you want: why? What are they going to hospitals for? Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Marijuana-related health problems" is just an easy scare. Give us the meat.

You haven't heard about all the marijuana related deaths recently? The most recent death toll was at

Spoiler

0

,000,000,000 people.

 

[mr2xxx]

Stroke and cardiac arrest? When did these things start being associated with weed?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

What the fuck are they talking about? You get these sentences about general emergency room visits on the rise, but literally none of the information you want: why? What are they going to hospitals for? Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Marijuana-related health problems" is just an easy scare. Give us the meat.

Seriously... that whole article said absolutely nothing.

You also gotta love the title.

"Some say cannabis with higher levels of THC may be partly to blame for rise in ailments"

"some..." "with higher levels of THC..." "may be..." "partly to blame..."

leads to a definitive statement like this in the title:

"UN: Marijuana-related health problems on rise in US"

Fucking science reporting, man.

 

[wenis]

What the fuck are they talking about? You get these sentences about general emergency room visits on the rise, but literally none of the information you want: why? What are they going to hospitals for? Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Marijuana-related health problems" is just an easy scare. Give us the meat.

I imagine the conversation at the ER goes something like the first 15 seconds of this youtube video...

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Stroke and cardiac arrest? When did these things start being associated with weed?

As soon as they ran out of other scare tactics, I guess.

 

[marrec]

I didn't know the UN was anti-weed.

Also:

The study noted an association between marijuana use and serious health problems, including sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction and stroke.

Those risks are mostly due to smoking, not the THC.

 

[Jenov]

so maybe in 60 years after more long term health research is done, marijuana will have just as negative a reputation as tabacco.

 

[TheExodu5]

What the fuck are they talking about? You get these sentences about general emergency room visits on the rise, but literally none of the information you want: why? What are they going to hospitals for? Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Marijuana-related health problems" is just an easy scare. Give us the meat.

A panic attack can be terrifying if you don't know what's going on. With marijuana, a panic attack can last for hours.

 

[disappeared]

Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Oh god doctor my heart's beating so fast I'm gonna die... oh. I'm fine?"

 

[PhantomHound]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

Sorry Spidey, there's a common misconception that because marijuana is safer than alcohol that it doesn't have any bad health related problems tied to it.

There's still a lot of scientific studies to be done on marijuana and it will likely be a cigarette scenario where the real health risks wont be known for another 20 years.

 

[Conor_Fool]

So because I wrote that smoking weed for casual use has adverse effects and that I'm a junior member that just means that I wrote that for comedy? Alright.

You're correct

 

[marrec]

so maybe in 60 years after more long term health research is done, marijuana will have just as negative a reputation as cigarettes.

Smoking Marijuana will give you cancer and other related health-risks.

So there's that.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

The study noted an association between marijuana use and serious health problems, including sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction and stroke.

So...um, are there numbers for this? You're going to have to forgive me for a bit of my skepticism regarding this one cause of all those weed induced heart attacks incidents throughout the decades...wait....

 

[SocksAndShoes]

As soon as they ran out of other scare tactics, I guess.

As I understand it, there is an increased chance of cardiac episodes in people who already have underlying cardiac issues.

 

[Acorn]

*Full disclosure the UN has a hard on for their "worldwide" drug treaties and repeatedly bitches at Holland and Portugal

 

[joelseph]

Sorry Spidey, there's a common misconception that because marijuana is safer than alcohol that it doesn't have any bad health related problems tied to it.

There's still a lot of scientific studies to be done on marijuana and it will likely be a cigarette scenario where the real health risks wont be known for another 20 years.

Is someone trotting out their alt accounts and having a good meta troll? Who are you people?!

 

[TheFatOne]

Love pieces like this that suggest there's a problem with zero evidence, and no scientific studies to back them up.

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

So because I wrote that smoking weed for casual use has adverse effects and that I'm a junior member that just means that I wrote that for comedy? Alright.

No the first comment is spouting bullshit based on nothing. You came in with a bullshit comment so of course people are going to call you out.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

Sorry Spidey, there's a common misconception that because marijuana is safer than alcohol that it doesn't have any bad health related problems tied to it.

There's still a lot of scientific studies to be done on marijuana and it will likely be a cigarette scenario where the real health risks wont be known for another 20 years.

Well now your other thread makes sense. You're saying basically nothing, but trying to scare people anyway. Just "bad health" and "they've still got to study it, man."

 

[Summer Haze]

I'm sure everybody with a brain knows that using weed for non-medical reasons screws you up.

Have you/ do you know anyone who has actually smoked it long-term? I always find that people who say shit like this are the people who have zero experience with the drug.

 

[besada]

What the fuck are they talking about? You get these sentences about general emergency room visits on the rise, but literally none of the information you want: why? What are they going to hospitals for? Are they just super high and think they're dying when they're totally fine?

"Marijuana-related health problems" is just an easy scare. Give us the meat.

I suspect edibles are going to be at fault. The potency of edibles can flatten someone who isn't a regular cannabis user.

 

[PhantomHound]

Is someone trotting out their alt accounts and having a good meta troll? Who are you people?!

No, but you're a fool if you think that we've done enough scientific studies on marijuana in large casual use studies. I'm not saying its worse than alcohol or shouldn't be legal, but to say you know everything about the drug is a little short sited.

 

[akira28]

I came here looking for info on health problems, and found some article vaguely mumbling about nebulous "health issues" and how the pot of today is stronger and may cause more of these anomalous and undefined symptoms because...well because it's not like it was back in the innocent 60s. It's more "dangerous".

This is the same bullshit NIDA and others have been pressing for 40+ years. It isn't any more accurate or relevant, it's just got an international angle since Uruguay and other countries are also starting to act on this international drug "war" Reagan declared back in the 80s.

Go smoke yourselves.

 

[Sheroking]

As I understand it, there is an increased chance of cardiac episodes in people who already have underlying cardiac issues.

Yeah, pot is a lot like almost every single over the counter medication then.

Scare tactics and clickbait titles piss me off and I don't even smoke weed.

 

[Spider-Man]

Explain exactly what you meant by that.

You're being called out for just stating a generic hyperbolic platitude. What do you actually mean?

To reply to the following post you made here's some good information as to why people drop dead after smoking weed: http://www.idmu.co.uk/canncardio.htm

My view is that if you aren't extremely sick or have chronic pain I would advise against smoking or ingesting marijuana it. Ignoring the legality of it in this situation, alcohol and smoking cigar/cigarette's are no different than casual use of weed, alcohol and smoking give you no benefits at all except for a buzz to make a person feel better.

 

[marrec]

Have you/ do you know anyone who has actually smoked it long-term? I always find that people who say stupid shit like this are the people who have zero experience with the drug.

Everyone I've known (personally) who smokes it chronically are messed up in some way mentally.

Of course, I only know like, 7 people who smoke it chronically and it's like a chicken and egg scenario.

 

[vas_a_morir]

I've actually heard from this one author guy that you'd have to smoke 5 joints in the 60's to get as high as one gets you today.

I've smoked stuff that I swear had to have something in it, but it was just that crazy shit from Southern Kentucky.

 

[And_Gignac]

Smoking Marijuana will give you cancer and other related health-risks.

So there's that.

 

[SocksAndShoes]

Oh, so pot is a lot like almost every single over the counter medication then.

Yup. And cannabis is probably safer than 75% of them.

 

[White Man]

I came here looking for info on health problems, and found some article vaguely mumbling about nebulous "health issues" and how the pot of today is stronger and may cause more of these anomalous and undefined symptoms because...well because it's not like it was back in the innocent 60s. It's more "dangerous".

This is the same bullshit NIDA and others have been pressing for 40+ years. It isn't any more accurate or relevant, it's just got an international angle since Uruguay and other countries are also starting to act on this international drug "war" Reagan declared back in the 80s.

Go smoke yourselves.

My question is that if they're going to write a marijuana hit piece, why not point out the probably legitimate link between marijuana and schizophrenia? There are lots of scholarly papers to be cited there. Why half-ass the smear piece?

 

[PhantomHound]

Well now your other thread makes sense. You're saying basically nothing, but trying to scare people anyway. Just "bad health" and "they've still got to study it, man."

Calm down. I said there's still scientific research to be done before all the facts are known. It should still be legally regulated but too much of anything can be a bad thing, and it's likely the smoke inhalation that will cause health problems.

 

[devilhawk]

Smoking and alcohol fuck you up more than weed.

But hey, those are perfectly fine and dandy. Just gotta be the magical age of 18 / 21.



And what about gambling? Poor sods gambling away their life savings, hopelessly addicted. That can fuck your life up pretty bad as well.

Well alcohol content and even nicotine content are regulated.

Maybe do the same for THC content?