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attack within an hour of using marijuana was 4.8 times greater than normal, but that “the elevated risk rapidly decreased thereafter.”
But what about the risk for people who aren’t already living with cardiovascular disease? As the Clinical Pharmacology study mentioned, incidents are rare. The Circulation study could point to only three prior reports of heart attacks “occurring in close proximity to marijuana use in otherwise low-risk individuals.”
The first, published in Clinical Toxicology 1979, noted a 25-year-old male who suffered a heart attack “in the virtual absence of risk factors… after smoking a cigarette containing marijuana.” The study,
however, fails to specify whether the cigarette contained other ingredients, such
other ingredients such as phencyclidine (PCP), which was a popular recreational drug during the late ‘70s when the study was published. The second, published in European Heart Journal in 1985, cited a “previously healthy 33-year-old” whose symptoms began an hour earlier “while smoking marijuana at a party.” Again, the possibility exists that the marijuana was laced with other substances, or that the individual had intentionally consumed other substances (e.g. alcohol, recreational drugs), particularly because the use occurred at a party, and because the same individual “had taken marijuana on three occasions in the previous three years with no ill effects.”
The third, published
in the International Journal of Cardiology during the early nineties, examined a healthy 17-year-old male described as a “daily user.” The study claimed that “Marijuana use may be a much more common cause of acute myocardial infarction than is generally realized,” but was unable to provide extensive data supporting this suspicion.
The takeaway? Marijuana can temporarily increase your risk of having a heart attack, particularly if you are elderly or have already been diagnosed with a heart condition. While the risk is both short-lived and statistically slim, it’s still very important that you talk to your doctor about Cannabis instead of experimenting on your own.