Marijuana isn’t harmless. In fact, it’s intimately linked with dying. Or so suggests a frightening study from Ontario. It examined whether individuals who received hospital-based care for cannabis use disorder (CUD) faced increased mortality risk compared to the general population. The results? Among more than 100,000 people getting hospital-based CUD care, 3.5% died within five years. That’s versus only 0.6% of the control population.
After adjusting for comorbidities, those getting hospital care for CUD faced a risk of death almost three times higher than the general population. It gets worse: CUD hospital visitors faced an almost tenfold risk of suicide and a fivefold risk of opioid poisoning. The at-risk group, sadly, skewed young and male. Policymakers, marijuana advocates, parents, young men, and everyone else should take note.
