(NewsWorthy.news) – A new study has linked marijuana use to an increased risk of having a heart attack or a stroke. The study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, found that smoking cannabis as little as once a month increases the user’s risk of having a stroke or a heart attack.
The study also found that marijuana use, whether it is smoked, vaped or consumed, increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Frequent cannabis users who use the drug daily are 25% more likely to have a heart attack and 42% more likely to have a stroke than those who never smoked the drug according to the study. It concluded that less frequent users who only smoked it once a week were 3% more likely to have a heart attack and 5% more likely to have a stroke. 75% of cannabis users say smoking is their preferred way of taking the drug.
Leading author of the study Abra Jeffers, a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a news release that as the use of the drug has become more normalized many underestimate the dangers of marijuana particularly regarding cardiovascular health. He noted that smoking – the predominant method of taking the drug – is of particular concern because it involves the inhaling of particulate matter.
Support for legalizing marijuana use has increased in the U.S. as roughly 88% of Americans support legalizing the drug for medicinal use and 59% support legalizing it for recreational use, according to a 2022 survey by Pew Research Center. Despite legalization, the drug still has vocal critics. In January 2024 a Californian woman avoided a prison sentence over stabbing her boyfriend to death 108 times while experiencing a psychotic episode induced by highly concentrated marijuana. Recreational use of the drug is legal in the state.
Studies have already linked marijuana to risks of developing anxiety, problems with memory, lung problems, paranoia and psychosis. The drug has also been linked to schizophrenia particularly concerning those predisposed to developing the condition; research indicated that the psychoactive THC compound found in recreational cannabis worsens schizophrenia and psychosis symptoms and can trigger relapses and further hospitalizations.
Copyright 2024, NewsWorthy.news
