WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the legalization of marijuana sales in Canada, researchers have observed a sharp increase in hospitalization among the older population, according to a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The researchers analyzed the Ontario Ministry of Health data over eight years to find 2,322 emergency room cases due to cannabis poisoning in adults aged 65 or older, of which 55.2 percent were men. Among these patients, 38.5 percent had cancer, 16.6 percent had concomitant alcohol intoxication, and 6.5 percent had dementia.
'This is the tip of the iceberg because we're only capturing emergency department visits,' lead author Nathan Stall, a geriatrician and general internal medicine provider at Sinai Health and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, commented. 'Some people may not visit the emergency department or seek care at all.'
The researchers found that cases of cannabis poisoning doubled after the legalization of dried cannabis flowers in October 2018 for recreational purposes, and tripled after the legalization of edible cannabis in January 2020.
'While the design of our study limited us from determining whether poisonings were unintentional or intentional, we suspect both contributed to the harms we observed,' Stall said. 'Older adults are prone to unintentional poisonings because edible cannabis products are visually attractive and palatable and may be taken in error, being easily confused with non-cannabis food items'.
The letter revealed that cannabis can cause multiple effects in older people due to their 'underlying health conditions, sensory impairment, and cognitive decline.'
Researchers also warned that intentional cannabis exposure could cause adverse effects among older populations as 'today's cannabis extracts contain as much as 30 times more THC than dried cannabis from the mid-1980s and early 1990s.' THC, short for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main component that causes psychoactive effects in users.
'Edible cannabis products should include dosing information with specific guidance for older adults, and the geriatric therapeutic principle of 'start low and go slow' is particularly relevant,' Stall advised. 'Clinicians should recognize that many older adults are using cannabis products, and have open and judgment-free conversations about its use.'
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