As cannabis use among youth rises in Canada — and THC potency reaches record highs — emergency departments are seeing a surge in cases of a once-rare condition: cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS).
Characterized by relentless vomiting, abdominal pain and temporary relief through compulsive hot showers or baths, CHS is increasingly affecting adolescents and young adults. Yet few people — including many clinicians — know it exists.
Canada ranks among the highest globally for youth cannabis use, with 43 per cent of 16-19-year-olds reporting use in the past year. Usage peaks among those 20–24 years, with nearly half (48 per cent) reporting past-year use.
This rise in regular, heavy use coincides with a 400 per cent increase in THC potency since the 1980s. Strains with THC levels above 25 per cent are now common. As cannabis becomes more potent and accessible, clinicians are seeing more cases of CHS, a condition virtually unheard of before 2004.
CHS unfolds in three phases:
Prodromal phase: Nausea and early morning discomfort begin. Users increase cannabis consumption, thinking it will relieve symptoms.
Hyperemetic phase: Intense vomiting, dehydration and abdominal pain follow. Hot showers or baths provide temporary relief — a hallmark of CHS.
Recovery phase: Symptoms resolve after stopping cannabis entirely.
Diagnosis is often delayed. One reason is because CHS mimics conditions like gastroenteritis or eating disorders, leading to costly CT scans, MRIs and gastric emptying tests. One telltale sign — compulsive hot bathing — is frequently overlooked, despite its strong diagnostic value.
Youth face unique risks. The brain continues to develop until about age 25, and THC exposure during this critical window can impair cognitive functions like memory, learning and emotional regulation. Heavy cannabis use is associated with heightened risks of anxiety, depression, psychosis and self-harm.
Edit, the link in the article goes to this study:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2796355
Results There were 12 866 ED visits for CHS from 8140 individuals during the study. Overall, the mean (SD) age was 27.4 (10.5) years, with 2834 individuals (34.8%) aged 19 to 24 years, 4163 (51.5%) females, and 1353 individuals (16.6%) with a mental health ED visit or hospitalization in the 2 years before their first CHS ED visit. Nearly 10% of visits (1135 visits [8.8%]) led to hospital admissions. Monthly rates of CHS ED visits increased 13-fold during the 7.5-year study period, from 0.26 visits per 100 000 population in January 2014 to 3.43 visits per 100 000 population in June 2021. Legalization was not associated with an immediate or gradual change in rates of ED visits for CHS; however, commercialization during the COVID-19 pandemic period was associated with an immediate increase in rates of CHS ED visits (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.49; 95% CI, 1.31-1.70). During commercialization, rates of CHS ED visits increased more in women (IRR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.16-1.92) and individuals older than the legal age of cannabis purchase (eg, age 19-24 years: IRR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.19-2.16) than men (IRR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.85-1.37) and individuals younger than the legal age of purchase (IRR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.42-1.45).
Gonna be really close to zero.
I don't have skin in the fame either way, but this is interesting https://poppot.org/2023/04/17/child-abuse-deaths-linked-to-thc-top-300/
I suppose you could describe attributing child neglect deaths to marijuana use as interesting, in a "wow I wonder what batshit nonsense they'll blame the safest recreational drug in existence for next" sort of way
I think alcohol abuse destroys lives, but so does Marijuana abuse. One isn't better than the other.
If you think marijuana and alcohol are equally harmful then you aren't qualified to walk and chew at the same time
As abuse. Like if somebody tokes on the weekend or has a single beer neither is a problem.
As I mentioned prior I know people that have abused it to point of psychosis hospitalization, and completely destroying their job/education. You just have to define the amounts for abuse, and those will be different per drug.
They're not even close to the same
Have you had psychosis from a beer every day? Notice I'm not saying they are the same, but all drugs can do damage if overused. Heroine has no side affects after it wears off, but will end you with slightly too much. If I over drink caffeine my blood pressure skyrockets and I'm a candidate for something bursting and dying of an internal bleed. For me coffee is dangerous.
Nobody who isn't already hereditarily predisposed to psychosis has ever developed psychosis from cannabis consumption. Nobody has ever required an organ transplant due to cannabis consumption either. Heroine absolutely does have long-term negative effects, marijuana has none outside of respiratory effects which can be completely avoided with any other method of ingestion. Quit lying.
Some bold claims. The life style around heroine addiction has negative affects, but per experts it is a connector that is done when it pops off. Out of the entire world drinking responsibly how many organ transplants are there? Its those who overuse that are an issue. The drunk driver is no different than my high neighbour that smashed through a gate, that gate could have easily been a person. I don't claim marijuana is horrible but the best argument people who use marijuana come up with is " well it's not alcohol, alcohol is worse". That whataboutism is dangerous when people think that equates to over indulgence is without risk.
What experts? Because it took me all of five minutes to find a shitload of resources detailing long-term permanent effects of heroin abuse including brain damage, feel free to try finding even one credible source that says otherwise
https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/what-are-long-term-effects-heroin-use
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9847452/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5701874/
We're not discussing responsible alcohol usage, per your previous comment we're talking about abuse. Abuse of alcohol can easily kill a person in a single drinking session, not true at all for any form of cannabis no matter how concentrated. Alcohol abuse can destroy your organs in just a few years requiring transplant to avoid an agonizing death, also not true for any form of cannabis no matter how concentrated even after a lifetime of heavy use. And yes, alcohol actually is still harmful even in small amounts, it's a fucking carcinogen, it directly results in cumulative cell damage leading inevitably to cancer, there is literally no safe amount. If you drink and don't get cancer it's only because you managed to get killed by something else first.
https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/what-are-long-term-effects-heroin-use
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet
https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/news/new-genetic-study-confirms-that-alcohol-is-a-direct-cause-of-cancer
And cannabis? Minor risk of cancer due to smoke inhalation in traditional ingestion, none for any other method of consumption
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1277837/ "It should be noted that with the development of vaporizers, that use the respiratory route for the delivery of carcinogen-free cannabis vapors, the carcinogenic potential of smoked cannabis has been largely eliminated"
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4302404/ "...a null association between marijuana use and lung cancer is somewhat surprising since marijuana smoke contains known carcinogens in amounts comparable to those found in tobacco smoke (49). While the generally smaller amounts of marijuana that are regularly smoked compared to tobacco might appear to explain the null association of marijuana with lung cancer, the absence of a dose-response relationship between marijuana use and lung cancer, in contrast to the strong dose-response relationship noted for tobacco (16), would argue against this explanation. A more likely explanation is a tumor-suppressant effect of THC and other cannabinoids evident in both cell culture systems and animal models of a variety of cancers, as reviewed by Bifulco et al. (57). These anti-tumoral effects (anti-mitogenic, pro-apoptotic and anti-angiogenetic) could possibly counteract the tumor-initiating or tumor-promoting effects of the carcinogens within the smoke of cannabis."
So even in the most harmful method of cannabis consumption there are verifiable anti-carcinogenic effects mitigating the carcinogenic effects of the smoke! And again, literally any other method of cannabis ingestion completely bypasses all carcinogenic effects and respiratory damage, leaving zero long-term health effects.
Your allegedly high neighbor who allegedly smashed your gate does nothing to change the verifiable fact that cannabis is infinitely safer than any other recreational substance in existence, correcting you on your nonsense isn't "whataboutism" you're just upset at being corrected.
A lot of assumption/projection there dude. I am by no means upset.
A lot of verifiable scientific evidence that I'm right, the fact that you've completely ignored all of it and failed entirely to admit that you were wrong indicates pretty strongly that I'm also right about your emotional state as well