You are here
Home 🌿 Medical Cannabis News 🌿 Marijuana can be a risk for people with heart issues, new study says 🌿Marijuana can be a risk for people with heart issues, new study says
While one can’t necessarily overdose on cannabis, there have been instances where potent edibles have resulted in hospital visits, Gizmodo is reporting. A new study published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology detailed the story one 70-year-old man who used a THC-infused lollipop to get to sleep and ended up having a heart attack. It should be noted that this man did have a pre-existing heart condition — coronary artery disease, a condition where the buildup of plaque in arteries narrows blood flow to the heart. Still, the man hadn’t had a flare-up for the past two years and was regularly taking his medication.
What he didn’t expect, however, was for the “marijuana lollipop” to cause hallucinations. Within a mere 30 minutes of consuming the lollipop, the man was panicking. He dabbled with marijuana a few times when he was younger but probably wasn’t used to the amount of THC that is used in edibles nowadays. He also ended up consuming the entire thing because he wasn’t feeling its effects right away, while regular edible-users nowadays are aware that the effects of edibles often have a delayed onset.
This resulted in him consuming a much higher dose of THC, which caused terrifying hallucinations. The anxiety from his hallucinations combined with his heart condition turned into a perfect storm — a heart attack. While he survived, his heart condition did worsen from the experience and his ability to exercise and perform daily tasks was negatively effected.
Man who ate marijuana lollipop had heart attack caused by "fearful hallucinations" https://t.co/71kItfIzF4 pic.twitter.com/QToTK9USaG
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 12, 2019
While there have been studies showing that cannabis can actually cause anxiety rather than lessen it in some users, not much is known about links between cannabis and heart troubles. It has been documented that two years ago, an 11-month-old baby died from a heart condition after ingesting cannabis, making it the first fatal cannabis overdose ever on record. Doctors later clarified that while they found a potential link that is worth looking into, they didn’t actually find any evidence that the marijuana directly caused the death.
“Marijuana can be a useful tool for many patients, especially for pain and nausea relief,” said study author Alexandra Saunders, a cardiologist and chief resident in the internal medicine program at Dalhousie University in New Brunswick. “At the same time, like all other medications, it does carry risk and side effects.”
The 70-year-old man who suffered from the heart attack and the researchers involved in the study are all from Canada, where cannabis was recently legalized for recreational use nationwide. Legalization in the United States is still slow-going, and is making its way slowly state by state.
420 Intel is Your Source for Marijuana News
420 Intel Canada is your leading news source for the Canadian cannabis industry. Get the latest updates on Canadian cannabis stocks and developments on how Canada continues to be a major player in the worldwide recreational and medical cannabis industry.
420 Intel Canada is the Canadian Industry news outlet that will keep you updated on how these Canadian developments in recreational and medical marijuana will impact the country and the world. Our commitment is to bring you the most important cannabis news stories from across Canada every day of the week.
Marijuana industry news is a constant endeavor with new developments each day. For marijuana news across the True North, 420 Intel Canada promises to bring you quality, Canadian, cannabis industry news.
You can get 420 Intel news delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for our daily marijuana news, ensuring you’re always kept up to date on the ever-changing cannabis industry. To stay even better informed about marijuana legalization news follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.