Driving and Smoking
When it first appeared that recreational marijuana would be approved across the country, one of the concerns brought up was about users driving under the influence. When someone drives and drinks, you can ask him or her to walk a straight line, take a breathalyzer test, and so on, but determining if someone is high on pot is a problem. LiveScience reports that there’s no way to measure marijuana with a breathalyzer, so researchers use blood tests, but blood concentrations of marijuana’s active ingredient THC “can stay persistently high in chronic users” so that’s not a good test. In traffic-fatality studies, any amount of THC in the blood, no matter how tiny, counts as a positive drug test. So at least some of the smokers whose deaths are counted in studies may not have been high at the time of the accident. However, a study in JAMA reported in April contains data on car crashes after parties held on April 20, the day that smokers often get together and celebrate, and it’s not good. Based on 25 years of data, it seems that in fatal accidents between 4:20 p.m. and midnight each year, “there was a 12 percent increased risk of a fatal car crash compared with the control dates.”
Getting sick from Marijuana
How do you pass the word that marijuana can make you very very sick? Through the general media, and blogs like this. An article in April might surprise you because it was so unexpected. A heavy marijuana smoker began vomiting and experienced pain to such an extent that he was laid low every few weeks, for years. He tried on antidepressants, anti-nausea and anti-anxiety drugs, and…nothing. There were trips to the ER. He had his appendix and his gallbladder out and two endoscopies, and saw a psychiatrist. The only relief he could get was from taking a hot shower. About 10 years later, a doctor finally convinced him he had a disorder linked to his smoking. The man had C.H.S., cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which causes cyclic vomiting in heavy marijuana users. The only thing that stops it is to stop smoking weed. Marijuana smokers suffering from C.H.S are showing up more frequently in ERs, and it’s become a common problem in the last five years, according to medical professionals interviewed for the article. (People likely are more prone to admit to the amount of their smoking since marijuana has become legalized in more states.
Medication from Medical Marijuana
Unbelievably, a couple million are affected. Doctors aren’t even sure why vomiting occurs, especially when pot is used to cure nausea. But the effects can be devastating. Some smokers have lost jobs because they miss so much work going to doctors, and one person cited had broken bones from vomiting. Another went so far as to have exploratory surgery to check for a bowel obstruction. Drug for epilepsy coming from marijuana ingredient Who would have thought it? Cannabidiol, found in marijuana, can help epilepsy and is found in a drug called Epidiolex that is about to become the first “cannabis-derived medication” in the U.S. An F.D.A. advisory panel has recommended that it be approved, and it’s assumed that wen this happens, the drug is. The active ingredient does not make people high, which distinguishes this medication from medical marijuana. Designated an “orphan drug,” Epidiolex is thought to be especially helpful for two rare forms of epilepsy whose seizures have not responded to current medication. For more information please contact our luxury drug rehab in California at (866) 569-9391.
