Cannabis use was linked with cardiovascular disease in a survey of nearly half a million US adults, with a higher risk of stroke a particular concern. The findings come from an observational study, which researchers will present at an American Heart Association meeting.
Participants were interviewed by phone as part of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Researchers found that people who reported using cannabis also reported higher rates of cardiovascular disease than non-users. The pattern held among adults aged 18 to 44, never-smokers, and people without diabetes, hypertension or obesity.
Stroke links stronger than heart disease at higher use
Compared with non-users, adults who used cannabis up to five days a month had 23% higher odds of reporting a history of cardiovascular disease. Those who used it for 16 to 30 days a month had 21% higher odds of reporting the condition.
The strongest association was with stroke. Low-frequency use was linked to 40% higher odds of stroke, and heavy use to 25% higher odds. The stroke findings were somewhat confounding.
Researchers and outside expert urge caution
Study leader Dr. Aabha Divya of Tulane University School of Medicine said in a statement: “We expected that the chances of heart disease would gradually rise as people used cannabis more often, but that wasn’t the case.”
The study was not designed to prove that cannabis use causes heart disease. Robert Page of the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, who was not involved in the study, said it was the second observational study to suggest cannabis exposure in nonsmokers may be a risk factor for heart disease.
Page, who chaired the writing group for the American Heart Association’s 2020 cannabis scientific statement, said: “Clinicians should be addressing cannabis use with their patients as they would tobacco use when considering the risk of cardiovascular disease.”
