A new study has found that cannabis (marijuana, weed) use may double the risk of death from heart attacks and strokes.
The meta-analysis, published on Tuesday in the journal Heart, reviewed 24 studies published between 2016 and 2023 that examined cannabis use and cardiovascular outcomes.
The studies were conducted in Australia, Egypt, Canada, France, Sweden, and the United States.
The research encompassed nearly 200 million individuals, primarily aged 19 to 59, and found that cannabis use was most prevalent among younger adults and men.
The outcome showed a significant increase in risk of major cardiovascular events, including a 29% higher likelihood of heart attack, a 20% higher risk of stroke, and twice the chances of cardiovascular death.
The danger was also elevated in people who used cannabis at least once a week.
In a linked editorial, Beth Cohen, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, dismissed the common misconception that cannabis is harmless because it’s natural.
“When you burn something, whether it is tobacco or cannabis, it creates toxic compounds, carcinogens, and particulate matter that are harmful to health,” she said.
Lynn Silver, a clinical professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, also urged healthcare providers to screen patients for cannabis use and educate them on its risks, similar to tobacco warnings.
“Clinicians need to screen people for cannabis use and educate them about its harms, the same way we do for tobacco, because in some population groups it’s being used more widely than tobacco,” she said.
“Our regulatory system, which has been almost entirely focused on creating legal infrastructure and licensing legal, for-profit (cannabis) businesses, needs to focus much more strongly on health warnings that educate people about the real risks.”
However, the researchers noted moderate to high bias risks in some studies due to incomplete data and inconsistent cannabis exposure measurements. Most studies were observational, and several relied on overlapping datasets.
A 2024 study found that daily use of marijuana for years may increase the risk of head and neck cancers by 3.5 to 5 percent.
Two studies in 2023 also suggested that regularly using marijuana can significantly increase a person’s risk of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.
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