Marijuana Users More Likely to Land in Hospitals and Emergency Rooms
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: gulliver • 2 years ago • 47 commentsBy: Tony Ho Tran (The Daily Beast)
Sorry, pot heads. We’ve got bad news: Your weed smoking habit might just land you in the emergency room—or at least make you more likely to.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
UP IN SMOKE
Is the high worth the pain?
Tony Ho Tran
Deputy Editor, Innovation & Tech
Published Jun. 27, 2022 7:30PM ET 
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Getty
Sorry, pot heads. We've got bad news: Your weed smoking habit might just land you in the emergency room—or at least make you more likely to.
In a new study published today in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research, Canadian researchers found weed smokers visited the emergency room or were hospitalized 22 percent more than those who didn't use cannabis. Researchers say that the findings push back against commonly held notions that cannabis is a "safer" drug, and underscores the need for education and awareness around regular pot use.
"Our study demonstrates that the use of this substance is associated with serious negative outcomes, specifically [emergency department] visits and hospitalizations," Nicholas Vozoris, lead respirologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and lead author of the study, told The Daily Beast. "Cannabis use needs to be discouraged and reduced in the population, so as to help prevent serious adverse health consequences from happening to individuals and to protect our fragile health care systems from further strain."
The study's authors compared health data from nearly 4,800 people who reported smoking weed in the preceding 12 months with data from 10,000 people who didn't report any weed use in the same time frame. While they didn't find a strong connection with pot use and respiratory-related hospital visits and deaths, they did find that overall visits to the emergency room was much higher amongst users.
In fact, they discovered that one in 25 pot smokers will land in the emergency department within a year of cannabis use. The most common cause of a visit is bodily injury, with 15 percent of users reporting acute trauma. 14 percent also reported going to the hospital due to respiratory issues as well.
"I think our study results should set off alarm bells in the minds of the public, health care professionals, and political leaders," Vozaris said. "Cannabis use is on the rise around the world, and in some places, like Canada and certain U.S. states, where its use has been decriminalized, its use has been indirectly green-lighted."
But it's important to remember: Correlation doesn't equal causation. Just because pot smokers find themselves in the hospital more often than those who don't smoke doesn't mean that it's the weed that's doing it. It could be that those who smoke pot might just tend to be the type of people to accidentally harm themselves, or another reason entirely. However, Vozaris adds that some causes could include the fact that cannabis use "gives rise to sedation that then leads to things like motor vehicle accidents and falls, or cannabis use giving rise to agitation or psychosis that then leads to things like physical altercation and self-harm."
So, if you really want to avoid the emergency room in the future, it's probably a good idea to cut back on the bud… at least, just a little bit.
Tony Ho Tran
Deputy Editor, Innovation & Tech
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It couldn't be all good news, right?
weed, saving republican lives for over 100 years.
I was a jock who participated in organized sports fo over four decades. I played Little League Baseball as a kid. Then I played Babe Ruth Baseball. In high school I was on the wrestling team and played football for one season. I was an NCAA wrestler in college. I played in various volleyball leagues for almost thirty years. Then I played on the company softball team for five years.
I visited the ER several times for broken bones and other sports injuries.
I have also smoked pot ever since high school.
I have never gone to the hospital because of weed.
A classic case of denial.
I don't need healthcare insurance; I just need collision insurance.
That's probably what at least half of the pot related ER visits are from.
Same here. What a bogus 'study'!
I've smoked it since I was 16.
At work too?
Uhm.
I never would have guessed??
Maybe it's because pot smokers take better care of themselves and go to the hospital when required as compared to those who don't smoke pot and don't go to the hospital when they should. I'd like to see a comparison with cigarette smokers, which is more harmful than weed.
That sounds a bit like a whataboutism.
I think the issue here is that something getting lost in the hype to legalize marijuana is any perspective on the actual downsides of marijuana use. In addition to increased trips to the ER it is also associated with triggering psychosis in some individuals and in some cases the prognoses for recovery are not good.
Another thing I read about marijuana legalization is that US states that legalized marijuana have seen in crease in automobile accidents.
Research Ties Marijuana Legalization to Car Accidents, Injuries
Sounds bogus. Completely bogus. No reason not to legalize weed. Tax the hell out of it. It's a win-win situation all around.
What gets lost is that marijuana can't get in depth study because it's still a Schedule 1 drug and thus those studies it does get, like the one in the article aren't studies of the compound itself, but of correlations of those who use it. It needs to be moved to Schedule 3 and directives for real study need to be done.
While stats in states with legal weed say fatal crashes are up 6% since legalization not one study can definitively point at marijuana use as the culprit. While we can attribute to as much as 38% of all fatal auto crashes to alcohol use.
I'm not arguing that we stop taking away licenses for DUIs and putting people in jail for vehicular homicide.
Whenever anybody says anything bad about marijuana people always go, well what about alcohol and what about tobacco?
Somebody has to ask, "what about marijuana?"
There is a lot of money to be made by the usual suspects in producing, selling, and taxing marijuana and nobody is willing to discuss the social costs until that economic investment is paying back its investors.
That's not what I'm doing. We know how alcohol and nicotine work and their effects on the body and on the larger society. We have mountains of data.
My point is we need to decriminalize it so we can study it AND THEN we can logically and empirically discuss the social costs.
My point is we need to study it.
I wouldn't say " we need to decriminalize it so we can study it."
I would say we need to study it because we are decriminalizing at and we should proceed with caution.
It's possible that recent legalization meant wider useage, and a lot of first time users who have not yet developed personal control. Some more "whataboutism" would be comparing percentages of auto accidents and the seriousness of them between pot smokers and alcohol drinkers. IMO the number and seriousness of auto accidents caused by pot smokers would be dwarfed by those caused by alcohol drinkers.
But what really amazes me is that there are three substances that people use: alcohol, tobacco and weed. The one that is the least toxic, the least injurious to a person's health and in fact has valid medicinal uses, rarely if ever causes a person to become violent and in fact tends to have the opposite effect, the least addictive, and THAT'S the one that is under fire.
What a crock.
We've all known people who are baked all the time. Baked at home. Baked at work. Baked at night. Baked first thing in the morning.
Yes, because that's what they WANT to be, not because it becomes a physical need like heroin. I've known a lot of "heads" in my time, and there wasn't one of them who was not capable of going straight.
Only a person who hasn't been involved with it would have your attitude.
Are you trying to tell me that YOU can quit any time you want?
I did, 20 years ago. Read my reply to al Jizzerror below.
So what?
What's wrong with that?
EXACTLY BUZZ!
If you had to actually quit then doesn't that basically admit it was an addiction and a problem?
Oh, God, how some grasp at straws. I guess I should not have used the word "quit", because I just happened to never use it again and as I explained in the comment I directed you to read I simply stopped, and stopping had absolutely no effect on me - it did not cause me to want it again, it did not cause me to miss it. Those are the things that happen when one is addicted. The fact that I "quit" driving a car does NOT mean I was addicted to driving a car. The fact that I "quit" living in Canada does not mean I was addicted to living in Canada. I'm beginning to feel trolled about this, and any more ridiculous comments will lead to an impasse being declared.
And i am beginning to feel lied to.
IMPASSE
Oh, such desperation to not lose face.
This is a contest?
I thought it was a conversation.
Hmm.
Well, one of us is obsessed with winning.
Medical marijuana is important for veterans. It can help vets with their PTSD. It can also help athletes recover from injuries.
There are a plethora of other medical uses for marijuana.
I'm vaping medical marijuana right now.
I suffered serious back injuries. After major surgery I got addicted to opiates. I built up a tolerance to the opiates so they stopped working. I quit the opiates (cold turkey) and started using medical marijuana. Ten weeks after the surgery, I began pitching batting practice again for my baseball team. I also smoked before pitching. I never hit a batter.
Years later, when I had cervical surgery, I was put on morphine. When I left the hospital I quit the opiates again and now I vape marijuana. Whenever the nerve pain returns I vape.
Opiates lose effectiveness and patients get addicted. Opiates also tend to erase the memory banks and they turn people into assholes.
This is not a "what about" deflection.
BTW, I have never been at fault in a traffic accident.
I Googled "medical uses for marijuana. Here's the results:
About 31,100,000 results
Scholarly articles for medical uses for marijuana
Oh.
It's not my purpose to say that marijuana should not be legalized for medical or recreational use.
It is merely my purpose to point out that we should not be oblivious to the downsides of marijuana, for some people in particular and to society at large.
Thank you, al Jizzerror, you helped make my point.
I incorporated and was the lawyer for Toronto's first head shop (more than a half century ago) - sometimes worked behind the counter on weekends for fun - I was a weekend hippie and yes, I was stoned, but contrary to those who think it's addictive, I have not had anything to do with it for the past 20 years and I had absolutely no problem stopping cold, and I don't even think about it let alone miss it.
Also, when you double google that list of things marijuana supposedly treats mostly the results are inconclusive and need further study.
A couple of people I know who are baked all the time make mention of this or that thing they are supposedly treating with the marijuana.
It sounds about as convincing as my turmeric and ginger tea, which I swear by.
Come to think of it, it sounds like what they are really treating is not being high.
My mother suffered from epilepsy and glaucoma, and it stopped her spells and saved her vision - personal experience example. She used it sparingly and was NOT stoned all the time, only used it occasionally and never got wiped out like the people you know.
I've said already that it is not my point to argue against legalizing marijuana either for medical or recreational purposes.
What concerns me is that the drug has its own down sides which are not easily compared to either nicotine or alcohol.
It's associated with an increase in violence and abuse and in triggering durable psychoses in some individuals. It also causes brain changes in young people.
The downsides are being swept under the carpet for now because there is a lot of money to be made.
Nonsense.
Cite the studies.
It all sounds like nonsense to me
All of them or one of them? Or one of them?
Here is a random hit I got:
Cannabis-Induced Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features
If you are actually curious, do a Google search on marijuana induced psychosis. You will get a zillion hits.
And here is another hit:
Seeing Green? Cannabis Use Associated With Domestic Violence - New research adds marijuana use as a risk factor.
And here is what the NIH has to say about it:
A Review of Cases of Marijuana and Violence
I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints and then I smoke two more
(Song by Sublime)
At this point I use it less as it can cause heart issues in older people. I've always smoked in the evenings and it's never affected my productivity or performance in my day to day life. Let me add that I take zero pharmaceuticals, zero.
Right on. Taking into consideration the complexities of my day job I, too, had no difficulty in carrying out my tasks successfully.
IMO the negativity about it is something that is purposely paid for and circulated by the tobacco and alcoholic drink industries, because the competition, if honestly realized, would blow them out of the water. You know how capable they are of influencing the public from the time the whistleblower told the truth about nicotine and forced that industry to bend over backwards with damage control. It doesn't take a genius to realize that a very competitive subsitute for their products can so easily be grown at no expense by people in their own backyards or on balcony pots or even in window boxes and it grows like a weed because it IS a weed.
Amen to that.
These Tobacco Companies Are Investing in Cannabis - You know it’s a sign of the times when tobacco companies are investing in cannabis.
Enough of this nonsense.
But what about the heart disease that alcohol and nicotine cause?
Bet you didn't see that one coming!
j/k
Of course.
Do you have an identical twin that served as a control for your study of marijuana use and your personal productivity?