SCIENCE 2.0 – Legal marijuana has meant a boost for government accountants, and ended the need for fake “medical” marijuana claims, but it is often still dangerous in both the short and long term.
A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society used a trend analysis of data from the Department of Healthcare Access and Information and found a 1,808% relative increase in the rate of cannabis-related trips to the emergency department among California adults ages 65 and older from 2005 to 2019.
In absolute terms cannabis-related emergency department visits went from just 366 in 2005 to 12,167 in 2019. That needs some context.
Though incidents did rise shortly during most of that time, it did not spike higher after recreational legalization.
This worries physicians because older adults are at a higher risk for adverse health effects associated with psychoactive substances.
Older adults who have long used marijuana may believe it helps with some chronic issues (and for some it may) but they also regard it as less harmful than prescription medication, which is untrue.
“I do see a lot of older adults who are overly confident, saying they know how to handle it,” said Benjamin Han, MD, MPH … READ MORE.
