Latest news with #LynnSilver
Euronews
18-06-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Cannabis use doubles the risk of dying from heart disease, study finds
People who use cannabis or its synthetic cousin, cannabinoids, are twice as likely to die from heart problems as those who abstain from the drugs, new research has found. Recreational cannabis use remains illegal in most of Europe, but it is the region's most commonly used drug. An estimated 8.4 per cent of adults – 24 million people – used cannabis in the past year, according to the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA). Cannabis is generally stronger and more diverse than in past decades, with users having a choice between smoking marijuana, edibles, cannabis concentrates, and cannabinoids, which are synthetic psychoactive drugs with a high concentration of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis that makes people feel high. That has prompted concern about the potential health consequences of modern cannabis – and the new study, published in the journal Heart, is the latest to show they carry weight. In addition to the doubled mortality risks, cannabis use is tied to a 20 per cent higher risk of stroke and a 29 per cent higher risk of heart attacks or other types of acute coronary syndrome, which is when blood flow to the heart is severely restricted, the study found. The findings raise 'serious questions about the assumption that cannabis imposes little cardiovascular risk,' Stanton Glantz and Dr Lynn Silver, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco who were not involved with the study, said in a written comment. For the analysis, a French research team assessed real-world data from 24 studies conducted between 2016 and 2023. Most participants were between the ages of 19 and 59, and cannabis users were more likely to be younger and male compared with people who did not use the drug. Notably, most of the studies were observational, meaning researchers can't say that cannabis use causes heart problems directly. There was also a high risk of bias in most of the studies. More research is needed to understand exactly how cannabis is linked to heart problems, and whether the risks differ based on the type of cannabis someone uses. Despite the limitations, the study authors said their analysis is among the most comprehensive yet to probe the possible link between cannabis and heart problems in the real world. Glantz and Silver pushed for health warnings on cannabis products and protections against secondhand smoke exposure, particularly as countries relax their cannabis laws and the drug becomes more easily available. 'Cannabis needs to be incorporated into the framework for prevention of clinical cardiovascular disease,' they said. British lawmakers have voted to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales, following concerns about the number of women who are investigated for terminated pregnancies. The House of Commons approved an amendment — it passed 379-317 — to a broader crime bill that would prevent women from being criminally punished under an antiquated law dating back to the mid-19th century. Abortion has been legal in England and Wales for almost six decades but only up to 24 weeks and with the approval of two doctors. The amendment means that women who terminate their pregnancy after 24 weeks will no longer be investigated by the police. Medical professionals or anybody assisting a woman with an abortion outside outside the 24-week limit could still face prosecution. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour member of Parliament who introduced one of the amendments, said the change was needed because police have investigated more than 100 women for suspected illegal abortions over the past five years, including some who suffered natural miscarriages and stillbirths. 'This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help,' she said. 'Just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.' The House of Commons will now need to pass the crime bill, which is expected, before it goes to the House of Lords, where it can be delayed but not blocked. Under current law, doctors can legally carry out abortions in England, Scotland and Wales up to 24 weeks, and beyond that under special circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is in danger. Abortion in Northern Ireland was decriminalised in 2019. Changes in the law implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic allow women to receive abortion pills through the mail and terminate their own pregnancies at home within 10 weeks of conception. That has led to a handful of widely publicised cases in which women were prosecuted for illegally obtaining abortion pills and using them to end their own pregnancies after 24 weeks or more. Anti-abortion groups opposed the measures, arguing it would open the door to abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy. 'Unborn babies will have any remaining protection stripped away, and women will be left at the mercy of abusers,' said Alithea Williams, public policy manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, which describes itself as the UK's biggest pro-life campaign group. The debate came after recent prosecutions have galvanised support to repeal parts of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. In one case, a mother of three was sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2023 for medically inducing an abortion about eight months into her pregnancy. Carla Foster, 45, was released about a month later by an appeals court that reduced her sentence. Judge Victoria Sharp said that case called for 'compassion, not punishment' and there was no useful purpose in jailing her. Last month, a jury acquitted Nicola Packer on a charge of unlawfully self-administering poison or a noxious thing with intent to procure a miscarriage. Packer, who took abortion medicine when she was about 26 weeks pregnant, testified that she did not know she had been pregnant more than 10 weeks. Supporters of the bill said it was a landmark reform that would keep women from going to prison for ending their pregnancy. 'At a time when we're seeing rollbacks on reproductive rights, most notably in the United States, this crucial milestone in the fight for reproductive rights sends a powerful message that our lawmakers are standing up for women,' said Louise McCudden of MSI Reproductive Choices.
Gulf Insider
18-06-2025
- Health
- Gulf Insider
Cannabis Use Linked To A Doubled Risk Of Heart Disease Death, New Study Finds
With growing marijuana use across the country, studies have looked at the link between cannabis use and cardiovascular problems — but new research is showing the magnitude of such risk. In the study, published Tuesday in the journal Heart, researchers found cannabis use is linked to a doubled risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a 29% higher risk for acute coronary syndrome and 20% higher risk for stroke. The authors analyzed data from 24 studies published from 2016 to 2023. 'Our results provide a fully comprehensive report of the recent situation towards the cardiovascular health of cannabis users,' the authors wrote, but added there were some study limitations, including potential imprecise dosage measurements. With recreational marijuana legal in 24 states, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving to reclassify the drug to a less dangerous category under the Controlled Substances Act. Daily marijuana users now outnumber daily drinkers for the first time ever, according to a Carnegie Mellon University report last year. The preference shift is largely being driven by young people. For example, 69% of people aged 18 to 24 prefer marijuana to alcohol, according to a 2022 survey by New Frontier Data, a cannabis research firm. Due to increased usage, the perception of risk around marijuana has declined, health experts Dr. Lynn Silver of the Public Health Institute and Stanton Glantz, emeritus professor of the University of California at San Francisco, write in an editorial note that was published alongside the research, but the results of the study highlight the potential health effects. In the note, the authors called for the drug to 'be treated like tobacco: not criminalized but discouraged,' including added protection of bystanders from secondhand exposure. They also called for more research on whether cardiovascular risks are limited to inhaled products, which made up the majority of cases in the meta-analysis, or extend to other forms of cannabis exposure.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Marijuana use dramatically increases risk of dying from heart attacks and stroke, large study finds
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Using marijuana doubles the risk of dying from heart disease, according to a new analysis of pooled medical data involving 200 million people mostly between the ages of 19 and 59. 'What was particularly striking was that the concerned patients hospitalized for these disorders were young (and thus, not likely to have their clinical features due to tobacco smoking) and with no history of cardiovascular disorder or cardiovascular risk factors,' said senior author Émilie Jouanjus, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Toulouse, France, in an email. Compared to nonusers, those who used cannabis also had a 29% higher risk for heart attacks and a 20% higher risk for stroke, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Heart. 'This is one of the largest studies to date on the connection between marijuana and heart disease, and it raises serious questions about the assumption that cannabis imposes little cardiovascular risk,' said pediatrician Dr. Lynn Silver, a clinical professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at University of California, San Francisco. 'Getting this right is critically important because cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death both in the United States and globally,' said Silver, who is also senior adviser at the Public Health Institute, a nonprofit public health organization that analyzes marijuana policy and legalization. Silver is the coauthor of an editorial published with the paper that calls for change in how cannabis is viewed by health professionals, regulatory bodies and the public at large. 'Clinicians need to screen people for cannabis use and educate them about its harms, the same way we do for tobacco, because in some population groups it's being used more widely than tobacco,' she said. 'Our regulatory system, which has been almost entirely focused on creating legal infrastructure and licensing legal, for-profit (cannabis) businesses, needs to focus much more strongly on health warnings that educate people about the real risks.' The new systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed medical information from large, observational studies conducted in Australia, Egypt, Canada, France, Sweden and the US between 2016 and 2023. Those studies did not ask people how they used cannabis — such as via smoking, vaping, dabbing, edibles, tinctures or topicals. (Dabbing involves vaporizing concentrated cannabis and inhaling the vapor.) However, 'based on epidemiological data, it is likely that cannabis was smoked in the vast majority of cases,' Jouanjus said. Smoking tobacco is a well-known cause of heart disease — both the smoke and the chemicals in tobacco damage blood vessels and increase clotting, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Therefore, it is not surprising that smoking, vaping or dabbing cannabis could do the same, Silver said: 'Any of the many ways of inhaling cannabis are going to have risks to the user, and there's also secondhand smoke risks, which are similar to tobacco.' The notion that smoking cannabis is less harmful because it's 'natural' is just wrong, Dr. Beth Cohen, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told CNN in a prior interview. 'When you burn something, whether it is tobacco or cannabis, it creates toxic compounds, carcinogens, and particulate matter that are harmful to health,' Cohen said in an email. However, edibles may also play a role in heart disease, according to a May 2025 study. People who consumed edibles laced with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, showed signs of early cardiovascular disease similar to tobacco smokers. 'We found that vascular function was reduced by 42% in marijuana smokers and by 56% in THC-edible users compared to nonusers,' Dr. Leila Mohammadi, an assistant researcher in cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco, told CNN in a prior interview. None of the studies included in the new meta-analysis asked users about the potency of THC in the products they consume. Even if they had, that information would be quickly outdated, Silver said. 'The cannabis market is a moving target. It is getting more potent every day,' she said. 'What's being sold to people today in California is 510 times stronger than what it was in the 1970s. Concentrates can be 99% pure THC. Vapes are over 80% THC. 'A variety of chemically extracted cannabinoids can be almost pure THC, and all of these just have very different effects on people than smoking a joint in the 1970s.' Higher potency weed is contributing to a host of problems, including an increase in addiction — a July 2022 study found consuming high-potency weed was linked to a fourfold increased risk of dependence. In the United States, about 3 in 10 people who use marijuana have cannabis use disorder, the medical term for marijuana addiction, according to the CDC. 'We know that more potent cannabis makes people more likely to become addicted,' Silver said. 'We know that more potent cannabis makes people more likely to develop psychosis, seeing and hearing things that aren't there, or schizophrenia. Habitual users may also suffer from uncontrollable vomiting.' The rise in potency is one reason that the current study may not have captured the full extent of the risk of marijuana for heart disease, Jouanjus said: 'We are afraid that the association might be even stronger than that reported.' While science continues to study the risk, experts say it's time to think twice about the potential harms of cannabis use — especially if heart disease is a concern. 'If I was a 60-year-old person who had some heart disease risk, I would be very cautious about using cannabis,' Silver said. 'I've seen older people who are using cannabis for pain or for sleep, some of whom have significant cardiovascular risk, or who have had strokes or had heart attacks or had angina, and they have no awareness that this may be putting them at greater risk.'
CNN
17-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
Marijuana use doubles risk of dying from heart disease, large study finds
Drugs in society Heart disease Chronic diseasesFacebookTweetLink Follow Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Using marijuana doubles the risk of dying from heart disease, according to a new analysis of pooled medical data involving 200 million people mostly between the ages of 19 and 59. 'What was particularly striking was that the concerned patients hospitalized for these disorders were young (and thus, not likely to have their clinical features due to tobacco smoking) and with no history of cardiovascular disorder or cardiovascular risk factors,' said senior author Émilie Jouanjus, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Toulouse, France, in an email. Compared to nonusers, those who used cannabis also had a 29% higher risk for heart attacks and a 20% higher risk for stroke, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Heart. 'This is one of the largest studies to date on the connection between marijuana and heart disease, and it raises serious questions about the assumption that cannabis imposes little cardiovascular risk,' said pediatrician Dr. Lynn Silver, a clinical professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at University of California, San Francisco. 'Getting this right is critically important because cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death both in the United States and globally,' said Silver, who is also senior adviser at the Public Health Institute, a nonprofit public health organization that analyzes marijuana policy and legalization. Silver is the coauthor of an editorial published with the paper that calls for change in how cannabis is viewed by health professionals, regulatory bodies and the public at large. 'Clinicians need to screen people for cannabis use and educate them about its harms, the same way we do for tobacco, because in some population groups it's being used more widely than tobacco,' she said. 'Our regulatory system, which has been almost entirely focused on creating legal infrastructure and licensing legal, for-profit (cannabis) businesses, needs to focus much more strongly on health warnings that educate people about the real risks.' The new systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed medical information from large, observational studies conducted in Australia, Egypt, Canada, France, Sweden and the US between 2016 and 2023. Those studies did not ask people how they used cannabis — such as via smoking, vaping, dabbing, edibles, tinctures or topicals. (Dabbing involves vaporizing concentrated cannabis and inhaling the vapor.) However, 'based on epidemiological data, it is likely that cannabis was smoked in the vast majority of cases,' Jouanjus said. Smoking tobacco is a well-known cause of heart disease — both the smoke and the chemicals in tobacco damage blood vessels and increase clotting, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Therefore, it is not surprising that smoking, vaping or dabbing cannabis could do the same, Silver said: 'Any of the many ways of inhaling cannabis are going to have risks to the user, and there's also secondhand smoke risks, which are similar to tobacco.' The notion that smoking cannabis is less harmful because it's 'natural' is just wrong, Dr. Beth Cohen, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told CNN in a prior interview. 'When you burn something, whether it is tobacco or cannabis, it creates toxic compounds, carcinogens, and particulate matter that are harmful to health,' Cohen said in an email. However, edibles may also play a role in heart disease, according to a May 2025 study. People who consumed edibles laced with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, showed signs of early cardiovascular disease similar to tobacco smokers. 'We found that vascular function was reduced by 42% in marijuana smokers and by 56% in THC-edible users compared to nonusers,' Dr. Leila Mohammadi, an assistant researcher in cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco, told CNN in a prior interview. None of the studies included in the new meta-analysis asked users about the potency of THC in the products they consume. Even if they had, that information would be quickly outdated, Silver said. 'The cannabis market is a moving target. It is getting more potent every day,' she said. 'What's being sold to people today in California is 510 times stronger than what it was in the 1970s. Concentrates can be 99% pure THC. Vapes are over 80% THC. 'A variety of chemically extracted cannabinoids can be almost pure THC, and all of these just have very different effects on people than smoking a joint in the 1970s.' Higher potency weed is contributing to a host of problems, including an increase in addiction — a July 2022 study found consuming high-potency weed was linked to a fourfold increased risk of dependence. In the United States, about 3 in 10 people who use marijuana have cannabis use disorder, the medical term for marijuana addiction, according to the CDC. 'We know that more potent cannabis makes people more likely to become addicted,' Silver said. 'We know that more potent cannabis makes people more likely to develop psychosis, seeing and hearing things that aren't there, or schizophrenia. Habitual users may also suffer from uncontrollable vomiting.' The rise in potency is one reason that the current study may not have captured the full extent of the risk of marijuana for heart disease, Jouanjus said: 'We are afraid that the association might be even stronger than that reported.' While science continues to study the risk, experts say it's time to think twice about the potential harms of cannabis use — especially if heart disease is a concern. 'If I was a 60-year-old person who had some heart disease risk, I would be very cautious about using cannabis,' Silver said. 'I've seen older people who are using cannabis for pain or for sleep, some of whom have significant cardiovascular risk, or who have had strokes or had heart attacks or had angina, and they have no awareness that this may be putting them at greater risk.'
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Cannabis use may double risk of heart disease death, study finds
With growing marijuana use across the country, studies have looked at the link between cannabis use and cardiovascular problems — but new research is showing the magnitude of such risk. In the study, published Tuesday in the journal Heart, researchers found cannabis use is linked to a doubled risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a 29% higher risk for acute coronary syndrome and 20% higher risk for stroke. The authors analyzed data from 24 studies published from 2016 to 2023. "Our results provide a fully comprehensive report of the recent situation towards the cardiovascular health of cannabis users," the authors wrote, but added there were some study limitations, including potential imprecise dosage measurements. With recreational marijuana legal in 24 states, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving to reclassify the drug to a less dangerous category under the Controlled Substances Act. Daily marijuana users now outnumber daily drinkers for the first time ever, according to a Carnegie Mellon University report last year. The preference shift is largely being driven by young people. For example, 69% of people aged 18 to 24 prefer marijuana to alcohol, according to a 2022 survey by New Frontier Data, a cannabis research firm. Due to increased usage, the perception of risk around marijuana has declined, health experts Dr. Lynn Silver of the Public Health Institute and Stanton Glantz, emeritus professor of the University of California at San Francisco, write in an editorial note that was published alongside the research, but the results of the study highlight the potential health effects. In the note, the authors called for the drug to "be treated like tobacco: not criminalized but discouraged," including added protection of bystanders from secondhand exposure. They also called for more research on whether cardiovascular risks are limited to inhaled products, which made up the majority of cases in the meta-analysis, or extend to other forms of cannabis exposure. Teen questioned after family's quadruple murder Congressional members seek $1 billion for security after deadly lawmaker shootings Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hospitalized after allergic reaction
