According to a published study, hospitals and emergency rooms diagnosed with cannabis use disorders are unable to stop using cannabis even when the drug is harmful. It is defined as not possible, but over the next five years, nearly three times the proportion of individuals without disabilities died. Thursday, the biggest one on this theme.
Patients with cannabis use disorder were 10 times more patients than those in the general population. They were also more likely to die of trauma, drug addiction and lung cancer. These numbers suggest that cannabis use disorder is almost half of opioid addiction and is slightly less dangerous than alcohol use disorder, the researchers said.
The second report released Tuesday found that more cases of schizophrenia and psychosis in Canada have been linked to cannabis use disorder since the drug was legalized.
“Many people say, 'Oh, cannabis is not harmful. It's organic and natural. Dr. Laura Biart, a psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the editor-in-author of the study of death risk. She said there is, but the marijuana sold today is much stronger and more harmful than the baby boomers smoked in the 1960s and 1970s, she said.
“It's a public health threat like alcohol,” Dr. Biart said.
Recent studies suggest that 3 in 10 cannabis users develop cannabis use disorder. This is defined as the inability to stop using cannabis, despite causing serious health and social problems. Like alcohol, many people use marijuana on recreational recreational use without adverse effects or addiction.
Researchers used Ontario records to win encounters with millions of residents with the government's health system, which covers 97% of the population there.
From the records, scientists in the study on Thursday identified 106,994 people diagnosed with cannabis use disorder during emergency department visits or hospitalizations between 2006 and 2021.
The researchers linked the records to important statistical records, finding that 3.5% of them died within five years of treatment for the disorder. In the matched comparison group of people of the same age and gender, the mortality rate was 0.6%.
The authors subsequently adjusted to explain other risk factors that may have contributed to their death, such as mental disorders, other substance use, and conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
Even if these other causes die from the equation, the researchers concluded that patients with cannabis use disorder have a 2.8-fold increase in death risk compared to the general population. This risk was the greatest among young adults aged 25-44.
Dr. Daniel Milan, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa and the first author of the study, noted that these are likely underestimated cannabis victims.
“Our estimate is that every person who has been treated for CUD has another three who are not seeking care,” he said. “So this isn't just ud, it's so bad that they wanted it.”
He also said that the study would determine whether cannabis itself increases the risk of death, or whether it is another lifestyle or more common among heavy cannabis users. He said he couldn't.
“In any case, this group is truly, really high risk and could benefit from intervention, surveillance and prevention,” he said.
On Tuesday, the same research group published a study examining whether Canada's recent legalization of marijuana has affected the incidence of psychosis and schizophrenia.
Cannabis use is associated with the onset of temporary psychotic episodes characterized by schizophrenia, serious mental illness, and loss of contact with reality. Some studies have found no association between cannabis legalization and the increase in these disorders, but many studies detect changes in the prevalence of rare psychotic disorders It's too small for it.
The new study analyzed cannabis-related psychosis in Canada during three periods: before the country legalized cannabis (2006-2015), and expanded use of medical and non-medical cannabis (2015-2018) ) has become legal for cannabis recreational use (2018-2022).
The rate of schizophrenia has stabilized over time. However, the proportion of cases caused by cannabis use disorders increased to 10.3% during the legalization period, up from 3.7% before legalization. The rate of psychosis (no diagnosis of schizophrenia) has almost doubled since its legalization.
Young adults ages 19 to 24 were the most vulnerable, said Jodie Gilman, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, wrote a commentary on the study.
“This is a lifespan period where the brain is still developing and is still vulnerable to the effects of cannabis,” Dr. Gilman said. Psychosis and schizophrenia are also known to develop in younger adults, she added.
