California sees rise in cannabis-related emergency room visits by seniors

For most marijuana smokers, the side effects of marijuana simply mean a bad trip. Maybe you are a little scared or paranoid.

But for some older people, the consequences are more severe and end up in the hospital. A study of California hospitals by the University of California, San Diego found that between 2005 and 2019, cannabis-related emergency room visits among people over 65 increased by 1,804%.

Benjamin Hahn is a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, treating the elderly. He is the author of a study of this trend published this month in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.

We used this data and tracked the trends from 2005 to 2019 and we saw a really dramatic increase in the number of people in this age group going to the emergency room,” Khan said.

Interestingly, the pace of growth began to slow in 2017 as California prepared to legalize recreational marijuana following the passage of Proposition 64.

Khan said the data did not show the conditions under which these people were admitted to the hospital. But as a geriatrician, he has seen this happen in patients who have consumed cannabis edibles for chronic pain or sleep problems.

“I see patients later and they say, ‘I used chewing gum and nothing happened.’ And they don’t know much about doses,” Khan said. “Then they say, ‘I drank a lot more, and then two hours later my heart is pounding — I’m so worried I don’t know what’s going on! And they end up in the emergency room.”

Khan said the scientific literature has identified many side effects of cannabis, including impaired attention leading to accidents or falls, worsening cardiovascular disease, and cannabis-induced psychosis.

He said he wants to expand his research into the effects of cannabis on the elderly. A new study will be conducted with them to learn more about the conditions that led to their emergency room visits.

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