A new study, published in the scientific journal Heart, has shown that cannabis use can double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and increase the risk of stroke by 20 percent, The Guardian reported.
The data comes from a global analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Toulouse in France, who said the findings "raise serious questions about the health risks associated with cannabis."
The number of people using cannabis and products containing cannabinoids has increased significantly in the last decade. Although the link between cannabis and heart problems has been discussed before, the extent of the risk had not been clarified until now.
Researchers reviewed data collected from 24 large studies, conducted between 2016 and 2023, involving about 200 million people.
Analysis has shown that cannabis use is associated with:
Doubling the risk of dying from heart disease
Although the researchers acknowledged that this study has some limitations, such as the lack of precise data on the amount of cannabis use and the fact that most of the studies were observational, they emphasized that this is "a comprehensive analysis of the data published so far on the association between cannabis and major heart disease."
"These findings should raise general awareness of the potential for cannabis to cause cardiovascular harm," the study statement said.
In a joint editorial about the study, Professor Stanton Glantz and Dr. Lynn Silver from the University of California, San Francisco, wrote that the study raises serious questions about whether cannabis poses a risk to the heart.
"This study raises serious questions about the assumption that cannabis poses little risk to the heart," the professors wrote in the editorial in question.
They added that more research is needed to understand whether the risks come only from inhaled products or also from other forms of cannabis, such as edibles or synthetic products.
"Cannabis today is more potent and has developed into a wide range of high-concentration inhalable products, synthetic cannabinoids, and edibles containing cannabis," they wrote.
Doctors have emphasized that it is necessary to understand "whether the risk comes from the cannabinoids themselves or from particles, aromatic compounds or other elements that are inhaled during use."
In conclusion, they have suggested that cannabis should be included as a strategy for preventing heart disease by mentioning in regulations the health risks it poses.
"Effective product warnings, education on the risks, and cannabis should be treated like tobacco: not criminalized, but discouraged, and others protected from second-hand exposure," the editorial states, among other things.
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