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Using marijuana Double the risk of dying of heart disease, according to a new analysis of the grouped medical data involving 200 million people, mainly between 19 and 59 years.
“What was particularly striking is that the patients concerned hospitalized for these disorders were young (and therefore, unlikely to have their clinical characteristics due to smoking) and without history of cardiovascular disorders or cardiovascular risk factors,” said the main author Émilie Jouanjus,, An associate teacher of pharmacology at the University of Toulouse, France, in an email.
Compared to non-users, those who consumed cannabis also had a risk of 29% higher of heart attacks and a risk of 20% higher of stroke, according to the study published Tuesday in Heart Journal.
“This is one of the biggest studies to date on the link between marijuana and heart disease, and this raises serious questions about the hypothesis that cannabis imposes little cardiovascular risk,” said pediatrician Dr. Lynn Silver, clinical professor of epidemiology and biostatis of the University of California, San Francisco.
“It is extremely important to fully understand cardiovascular diseases is the main cause of death in the United States and in the world,” said Silver, who is also a senior advisor to the public Health Institute, a non-profit public health organization that analyzes the policy and the legalization of marijuana.
Money is the co-author of a editorial Published with the document which calls for a change in the way cannabis is considered by health professionals, regulatory organizations and the public as a whole.
“Clinicians must detect people for cannabis consumption and educate them on its damage, in the same way as we do for tobacco, because in certain population groups, it is used more widely than tobacco,” she said. “Our regulation system, which has almost entirely focused on creating legal infrastructure and for -profit legal companies (cannabis), must focus much more on health warnings that educate people on real risks.”
The new systematic and meta-analysis review analyzed medical information from major observational studies in Australia, Egypt, Canada, France, Sweden and the United States between 2016 and 2023.
These studies did not ask people how they consumed cannabis – such as smoking, vaping, stamping, edible products, dyes or topics. (The stamp involves spray concentrated cannabis and inhaling steam.) However, “on the basis of epidemiological data, it is likely that cannabis was smoked in the vast majority of cases,” said Jouanjus.
Smoking tobacco is a well -known cause of heart disease – both smoke and chemicals in tobacco damage blood vessels and increase coagulation, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Consequently, it is not surprising that smoking, vaping or cannabis dab, Silver has said: “All the many ways to inhale cannabis will have risks for the user, and there are also risks of used smoke, which are similar to tobacco.”
The idea that smoking cannabis is less harmful because it is “natural” is simply false, said Dr. Beth Cohen, professor of medicine at the University of California Previous maintenance.
“When you burn something, whether tobacco or cannabis, it creates toxic compounds, Carcinogens and particles are harmful to health, “said Cohen in an email.
However, co -like products can also play a role in heart disease, according to a May 2025 study.
People who consumed edible products were tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, have shown start signs cardiovascular disease Similar to smokers of tobacco.
“We have found that the vascular function was reduced by 42% in marijuana smokers and 56% in users building by THC compared to non-users,” said Dr Leila Mohammadi, assistant researcher in cardiology At the University of California in San Francisco, CNN told a prior interview.
None of the studies included in the new meta-analysis has asked users of the power of THC in the products they consume. Even if they had done, this information would be quickly exceeded, said Silver.
“The cannabis market is a motion target. It becomes more and more powerful every day, “she said.
“What is sold to people today in California is 5 to 10 times stronger than it was in the 1970s. Concentrates can be 99% pure. Vapes are more than 80%.
“A variety of cannabinoids chemically extracted can be almost pure THC, and all these effects have just very different effects on people than smoking an articulation in the 1970s.”
Bad higher power grass contributes to a multitude of problems, including an increase in dependence – a July 2022 study The consumption of high -power weeds was linked to a quadruple risk increased in dependence.
In the United States, around 3 in 10 people who use marijuana suffer from cannabis consumption disorders, the medical term for dependence on marijuana, According to the CDC.
“We know that more powerful cannabis makes people more likely to become dependent,” said Silver. “We know that more powerful cannabis makes people more likely to develop psychosis, to see and hear things that are not there, or a schizophrenia. Usual users can also suffer from uncontrollable vomiting. ”
The increase in power is one of the reasons why this study may not have captured the full extent of the risk of marijuana for heart disease, Jouanjus said: “We are afraid that the association will be even stronger than that reported.”
While science continues to study the risk, experts say it’s time to think twice about potential cannabis consumption damage – especially if heart disease is a concern.
“If I was a 60 -year -old person who had a risk of heart disease, I would be very careful to use cannabis,” said Silver. “I saw the elderly who consume cannabis for pain or sleep, some of which have a significant cardiovascular risk, or who have had brain vascular accidents or have had heart attacks or have had a chest, and they have no awareness that it could put them more at risk.”
Correction: A previous version of this story has resulted in the strength of cannabis products sold in California today.