Bethesda, MD: Those who consume cannabis long-term suffer no greater likelihood of cardiovascular disease by middle age than do those with no history of use, according to longitudinal data published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Public Health.
An international team of researchers from the United States and Switzerland assessed cumulative cannabis use and cardiovascular risk in a cohort of over 5,000 subjects over a period of more than two decades. Authors reported, “Compared with no marijuana use, cumulative lifetime and recent marijuana use showed no association with incident CVD (cardiovascular disease), stroke or transient ischemic attacks, coronary heart disease, or CVD mortality.”
They concluded, “In this community-based cohort of young adults followed for more than 25 years, we found no evidence to suggest that cumulative lifetime or recent marijuana use, at levels typical of most recreational, occasional users of marijuana in the United States, affects risk of future CVD events through middle age.”
The findings are consistent with those of other studies, such as those here, here, here, and here, which also report that the use of cannabis alone is not an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease at mid-life.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, “Cumulative lifetime marijuana use and incident of cardiovascular disease in middle age: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study,” appears in the American Journal of Public Health.