CANNABIS use is linked to a doubling of the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, with significantly heightened risks of having a stroke or acute coronary syndrome, according to a pooled analysis of real-world data.
While previously published studies have linked cannabis use to cardiovascular problems, the magnitude of the risk was unclear.
The study authors said it is an important gap in light of the recent major changes in the consumption and increased potency of the drug.
They considered all studies from 2016 to Dec 2023 that looked at cannabis use and serious cardiovascular outcomes: cardiovascular disease death, and non-fatal acute coronary syndrome, including heart attack and stroke.
In total, there were 24 studies, including Australian research, involving around 200 million people.
One of the 24 studies focused on medicinal cannabis and the rest on recreational cannabis.
Study participants were mostly aged between 19 and 59, and where sex was recorded, cannabis users tended to be mostly male and younger than non-users.
The analysis revealed heightened risks for cannabis use: 29% higher for acute coronary syndrome; 20% higher for stroke; and a doubling of the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
In a linked editorial, Emeritus Professor Stanton Glantz and Dr Lynn Silver of the University of California at San Francisco said the study "raises serious questions about the assumption that cannabis imposes little cardiovascular risk".
More research is clearly needed to clarify whether cardiovascular risks are limited to inhaled products or extend to other forms of cannabis exposure, they suggested.
Cannabis is now generally more potent and has diversified into a wide array of inhaled high potency cannabis concentrates, synthetic psychoactive cannabinoids, and edibles, they pointed out.
"How these changes affect cardiovascular risk requires clarification, as does the proportion of risk attributable to cannabinoids themselves versus particulate matter, terpenes or other components of the exposure," noted Prof Glantz and Dr Silver.
They also called for the drug to be treated like tobacco: not criminalised, but actively discouraged, with protection of bystanders from secondhand vapour inhalation.
Read the full paper HERE. KB
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