New Canadian research shows a connection between heavy cannabis use and dementia, heart attacks, schizophrenia and even death.
CAA comment.
Harmless, nothing to worry about, non-addictive, just a party thing and a raft of other superlatives that have been relentlessly pushed at us by drug users justifying their use of Cannabis. The pressure on legislators from twisted lawmakers elected on the ‘Weed Ticket’ is arguing that there is no harm in cannabis, but it is, in fact, a wonder drug that can assist humanity. So persistent is this lobby that Governments in Victoria are giving the concept of legalising Cannabis for personal use some consideration.
This article dishes facts that blow the cannabis acolytes’ bubble.
If the Government is persuaded, after reading this, the next question is, how they propose to manage and avoid abuse of personal use laws, or do they not think beyond the basic premise, legalise or not?
This is an issue that once out of the bag will never be put back in, much less managed or controlled; it is sure to be a drug, free-for-all.
The question remains, will our legislators be wise and strong enough to avoid the cannabis pitfall?
“Although marijuana has never been shown to have a gateway effect, three drug initiation facts support the notion that marijuana use raises the risk of hard-drug use:
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- Marijuana users are many times more likely than nonusers to progress to hard-drug use.
- Almost all who have used both marijuana and hard drugs used marijuana first.
- The greater the frequency of marijuana use, the greater the likelihood of using hard drugs later.”
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Author: Andrew R. Morral, Daniel F. McCaffrey, Susan M. Paddock
Publish Year: 2002
The risks associated with the legalisation of cannabis far outweigh the arguments for it.
Six months ago, doctors in Boston began noticing a concerning trend: young patients were showing up in emergency rooms with atypical symptoms and being diagnosed with heart attacks.
“The link between them was that they were heavy cannabis users,” Dr. Ahmed Mahmoud, a cardiovascular researcher and physician in Boston, told Canadian Affairs in an interview.
These frontline observations mirror emerging evidence by Canadian researchers showing heavy cannabis use is associated with significant adverse health impacts, including heart attacks, schizophrenia and dementia.
Sources warn public health measures are not keeping pace with rapid changes to cannabis products as the market is commercialised.
“The irony of this moment is that society’s risk perception of cannabis is at an all-time low, at the exact moment that the substance is probably having increasingly negative health impacts,” said Dr. Daniel Myran, a physician and Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa. Myran was lead researcher on three new Canadian studies on cannabis’ negative health impacts.
Legalisation
Canada was the first G7 country to create a commercial cannabis market when it legalised the production and sale of cannabis in 2018.
The drug is now widely used in Canada.
In the 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey, an annual government survey of cannabis trends, 26 per cent of respondents said they used cannabis for non-medical purposes in the past year, up from 22 per cent in 2018. Among youth, that number was 41 per cent.
Health Canada’s website warns that cannabis use can lower blood pressure and raise heart rates, which can increase the risk of a heart attack. But the warnings on cannabis product labels vary. Some mention risks of anxiety or effects on memory and concentration, but make no mention of cardiovascular risks.
The annual cannabis survey also shows a significant percentage of Canadians remain unaware of cannabis’ health risks.
In the survey, only 70 per cent of respondents said they had enough reliable information to make informed decisions about cannabis use. And 50 per cent of respondents said they had not seen any education campaigns or public health messages about cannabis.
At the same time, researchers are finding mounting evidence that cannabis use is associated with health risks.
A 2023 study by researchers at the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services found that adults with cannabis use disorder faced a 60 per cent higher risk of experiencing adverse cardiovascular events, including heart attacks. Cannabis use disorder is marked by the inability to stop using cannabis despite negative consequences, such as work, social, legal or health issues.
Between February and April of this year, three other Canadian studies linked frequent cannabis use to elevated risks of developing schizophrenia, dementia and mortality. These studies were primarily conducted by researchers at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and ICES uOttawa (formerly the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences).
“These results suggest that individuals who require hospital-based care for a [cannabis use disorder] may be at increased risk of premature death,” said the study linking cannabis-related hospital visits with increased mortality rates.
The three 2024 studies all examined the impacts of severe cannabis use, suggesting more moderate users may face lower risks. The researchers also cautioned that their research shows a correlation between heavy cannabis use and adverse health effects, but does not establish causality.
Budtenders
Health experts say they are troubled by the widespread perception that cannabis is entirely benign.
“It has some benefits, it has some side effects,” said the Boston cardiovascular researcher, Mahmoud. “We need to raise awareness about the side effects and benefits.”
Some also expressed concern that the commercialisation of cannabis products in Canada has created a race to produce products with elevated levels of THC. This main psychoactive compound produces a “high.”
THC levels have more than doubled since legalisation, yet even products with high THC levels are marketed as harmless.
“The products that are on the market are evolving in ways that are concerning,” Myran said. “Higher THC products are associated with considerably more risk.”
Myran views cannabis decriminalisation as a public health success, because it keeps young people out of the criminal justice system and reduces inequities faced by Indigenous and racialised groups.
“[But] I do not think that you need to create a commercial cannabis market or industry to achieve those public health benefits,” he said.
Since decriminalisation, the provinces have taken different approaches to regulating cannabis. But even in provinces where governments control cannabis distribution, such as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, products with high THC levels dominate retail shelves and online storefronts.
In Myran’s view, federal and provincial governments should instead be focused on curbing harmful use patterns, rather than promoting cannabis sales.
Ian Culbert, executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association, thinks governments’ financial interest in the cannabis industry creates a conflict of interest.
“[As with] all regulated substances, governments are addicted to the revenue they create,” he said. “But they also have a responsibility to safeguard the well-being of citizens.”
Culbert believes cannabis retailers should be required to educate customers about health risks, just as bartenders are required to undergo Smart Serve training and lottery corporations are needed to mitigate the risks of gambling addiction.
“Give ‘budtenders’ the training around potential health risks,” he said.
“While cannabis may not be the cause of some of these adverse health events … it is the intersection at which an intervention can take place through the transaction of sales.
So, is there something we can do there that can change the trajectory of a person’s life?”