I don’t know if cannibis should be legal or not. Probably isn’t any worse than alcohol, which has horrific health impacts. But do our kids especially really need to be exposed to one more thing that will ruin their lives. Because it is very clear that marijuana use in adolescence creates a high risk of serious mental illness. Cannibis also causes a variety of physical health impairments. This study adds to the evidence by showing that regular marijuana use substantially raises the risk of cardiovascular issues, including stroke and heart attack. Aside from the obvious reason that the smoke, like cigarette smoke, is harmful, cannibis receptors are prominent in the heart and vascular tissues so when cannibis attaches to them it triggers bad things.
Scott Adams, who is my favorite cartoonist and should stick to that, weighed in suggesting that the study only reflected people who used marijuana for medical reasons, which it obviously didn’t if anyone actually read it. In fact, heart disease is not an indication for medical marijuana. The study was largely capturing recreational users and it did a decent job of adjusting for important factors, including doing a sub-analyses of people who were not tobacco users. As always, people will “believe” whatever they want and ignore facts, data and research but I am going to give it to them anyway. And I find it especially hilarious that a lot of the same people who are convinced that vax safety conspiracy theories are true, think marijuana is just fine. (AHA Study)
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at 
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Overcast
PocketCasts
Radio Public
Stitcher
Anchor
RSS - Posts
Thanks. I would not have come across this on my own. Sometimes it’s the dog that didn’t bark in the night. For 20 years I’ve been wondering why there are so few studies of the effects of marijuana use. Not to be a conspiracy guy, but I think a lot of people have an interest in not finding out the harm that it causes. We frequently criticize Alex Berenson on your site, he’ got it coming, but on this issue he was an early voice expressing concern about this. I also wonder about the long term effects as adolescent users age. My completely uninformed bet is that there is some genetic damage that will be inheritable as the drugs interfere with various process in adolescents necessary to build the hormones that interact with and enable the expression of genes and cause changes in the code. Hope not! and I’m sure no one will ever get funding to go much further than the study you cite.
New Mexico legalized marijuana in 2021. While visiting my father in law, the Albuquerque Journal (local newspaper) reported on the amazing increase in emergency room visits by children who ingested marijuana. The law of unintended consequences strikes again.