SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – “Legal does not mean safe. That’s what we found in this study,” said Dr. Ibrahim Kamel, a clinical physician at Boston University and lead author of new research that indicates cannabis users are six times more likely to have a heart attack than other people.
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Kamel joined KCBS Radio this week to discuss the study findings. They also indicated that cannabis use is linked to adverse cardiovascular events, including strokes.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most states in the nation had legalized cannabis for medicinal use and two dozen had legalized adult non-medical use of cannabis as of last February – California is one of the states that has legalized both. Cannabis, or the dried flowers of the cannabis plant, can impact health in various ways, the centers said.
With the continued expansion of both medicinal and recreational cannabis use in the U.S., there has been increased research into its potential health impacts, such as the new study, published earlier this month in the JACC Advances journal. The pre-proof explained that Kamel and the research team utilized the TriNetX health research network for their retrospective cohort study.
“I never thought it would be six times higher risk in patients or in people who have no risk factors, no hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, not even family history of heart disease,” Kamel said of the results. “It was very surprising.”
While cannabis is often smoked, the increase in legalization has also resulted in an increase in other products made from it. These include “edibles” such as gummies, drinks and oils that can be used in cooking.
Kamel told KCBS Radio that his team did not differentiate between people who smoked cannabis or consumed it in a different form. However, he did say that his team excluded tobacco users, so they think that it is “likely the edibles are accounted for in this study.”
Overall, he said the cohort covered by the study was “huge” and included 4.5 million patients. Kamel added that the cannabis users were generally as healthy as other patients outside of their cannabis use.
“We think that it’s an independent risk factor and should be addressed and counseled to patients who use marijuana because… currently it does not have any warnings on it,” said Kamel. “So, I think when they come to their doctor’s visit, they should discuss it with their doctors to see the risk factors in general.”
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