Cannabis users more likely to die from high blood pressure

CANNABIS smokers have a three times greater risk of dying of high blood pressure than those who have never used the drug, scientists have found.

The risk grows with every year of use, according to research conducted by the school of public health at Georgia State University in the US.

The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, looked at more than 1,200 people aged 20 or over who had been involved in an ongoing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

In 2005-06, they were asked if they had ever used cannabis. The information was combined with 2011 mortality data from the US National Centre for Health Statistics, and adjusted for factors such as tobacco smoking and variables including sex, age and ethnicity.

The results showed cannabis users had a 3.42 times higher risk of death from hypertension than non-users, and a 1.04 times greater risk for each year of use. No link was found between cannabis use and dying from heart or cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes.

Barbara Yankey, who co-led the research, said there were limitations in the way cannabis use was assessed – including that researchers could not be sure whether people had used the drug continuously since they first tried it. She said the results chimed with plausible risks, since cannabis is known to affect the cardiovascular system.

Experts said the findings raised concerns. “Despite the widely held view that cannabis is benign, this research adds to previous work suggesting otherwise,” said Ian Hamilton, a lecturer in mental health at the University of York.