PBS – What was causing this intense stomach pain, Brittany wondered as she rode in an ambulance one late night in February.
Doctors at the hospital ran tests and ordered scans but could not name the source of her unrelenting nausea and vomiting.
It was so bad she thought it might be a recurrence of her severe pancreatitis, the illness for which she once had been hospitalized and put on life support.
While waiting for answers, she noticed an educational pamphlet on cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a little-known illness characterized by an onset of intense vomiting.
She wondered if her gastric distress might have been caused by the marijuana she regularly and legally smoked at her home in Toronto.
A doctor confirmed that Brittany’s years of cannabis use had manifested in CHS.
She felt upset, then bouts of anger. She felt isolated and like she had ruined her body.
“I basically spent that week laying in bed and just sipping slowly on water or sipping slowly on my Pedialyte, trying to get as much electrolytes and nutrition as I could,” recalled Brittany, 27, who today is sober.
She asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of how future employers may view her history of marijuana use.
Doctors say CHS is rare, but its frequency may be growing. There’s no cure for this syndrome, with the only known, surefire treatment being abstinence from marijuana.
Though cannabis has become more culturally acceptable and more widely legal, both in the U.S. and abroad, its regular use is still a sensitive topic.
As the Biden administration considers reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, and Congressional Democrats work to end the federal government’s prohibition, some doctors are warning that while cannabis has legitimate uses, it can also be misused, with debilitating side effects …
