Car Wrecks Significant Health Risk of Marijuana Use

In a recent study Hall and Degenhardt said "the most common acute effects of cannabis intake are anxiety, panic reactions, and psychotic symptoms, primarily in individuals using the substance for the first time."  "Some experimental studies have shown diminished driving performance in response to emergency situations," Hall and Degenhardt said, findings also corroborated in epidemiological studies.  http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Addictions/16456

For example, one study of car crash victims found that they were more likely to have tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of marijuana, in their blood compared with age- and sex-matched controls.

Another study determined that motorists killed in wrecks were 2.5 times as likely to have been responsible for the accident when they had THC in their blood.

THC also increases heart rate in a dose-dependent way, perhaps increasing risks for people with preexisting cardiovascular disease.  Two studies have indicated that individuals with a history of myocardial infarction were at increased risk for second events or death when they used marijuana, the authors said.

Cognitive effects while high are, of course, well recognized, but their persistence is less clear, Hall and Degenhardt said. Some studies say cognitive impairment remains in chronic heavy users even after they quit, but others indicate that recovery of function is the rule.

Cannabis use has been linked by numerous studies with adverse psychosocial effects including poor school performance and increased likelihood of unemployment, the authors said. But causality has never been proven, they pointed out.

"Whether cannabis use is a contributory cause of poor school performance, is a consequence of poor educational attainment, or poor educational attainment is the result of common factors is unclear," they wrote.

Similar uncertainty clouds the research on whether marijuana fosters use of other, arguably more dangerous, drugs such as cocaine and heroin, the researchers said. People who use marijuana are more likely to use other illicit drugs as well, but causality has been difficult to prove.

Marijuana use has also been linked to increased risk of psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and, less consistently, depression.

Hall and Degenhardt appeared to be persuaded that the association with schizophrenia is real, citing a series of longitudinal studies that found frequency of marijuana use was correlated with later diagnosis of schizophrenia.

This study once again shows that Cannabis/Marijuana is not a harmless herb!