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Cannabis use among adults is rising, which emerging literature shows also causes added concern for negative health effects. This month in a health letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found the prevalence of past-month cannabis use among older adults increased significantly from 4.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.9%-5.9%) in 2021 to 7.0% (95% CI, 6.2%-8.0%) in 2023. The study included 15,689 adults aged 65 years or older. Additionally, a separate retrospective study involving 6 million adults in Canada found that those aged 45 years and older who required emergency department (ED) or acute hospital care related to cannabis use faced a 1.5-fold greater risk of developing dementia within 5 years than patients who presented for other reasons, as published in JAMA Neurology. The authors also found annual rates of incident acute care attributed to cannabis use increased in individuals aged 65 years or older from 0.65 to 16.99 per 100,000 and likewise in individuals aged 45 to 64 years from 10.16 to 50.65 per 100,000 during the study period. And it’s not just older adults who may experience health effects. Yet another study published in May in JAMA Cardiology found that adults (mean age 31.3 years) who regularly smoked marijuana or used tetrahydrocannabinol edible products had reduced vascular function—comparable to that of tobacco smokers.
Cannabis in your state and in your urgent care: The District of Columbia and 39 states allow medical use of cannabis, and 24 states and the District of Columbia also allow recreational use of cannabis. For urgent care clinicians, recognizing the effects of cannabis use and treating associated symptoms could become a more common occurrence. Read more from the JUCM archive: Emesis Ad Nauseum: A Case Report of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome in Urgent Care