Liberals pay little heed to cannabis health fears

Last week, the federal government announced a proposal to put health warnings on every single cigarette in a package. Meanwhile, last week it was full speed ahead on the proliferation of legalized pot in Canada, despite the fact that tobacco smoke and marijuana smoke both have approximately 400 carcinogens. Why the discrepancy in concern over the two types of smoke?

According to media reports, Health Canada would like to reduce rates of cigarette smoking to below five per cent by 2035. Yet, the government is simultaneously encouraging smoking of the equally carcinogenic and noxious cannabis. Health Canada’s estimates are that 45,000 Canadians a year die from causes related to cigarette smoking. But nobody seems concerned about the thousands of Canadians who are likely to develop illnesses from inhaling pot smoke, with the accompanying inevitable costs to the health-care system.

Those costs will include not just respiratory diseases, but the treatment of schizophrenia, which has been linked with marijuana use in youth. It will also include the treatment of stroke patients, as researchers now say that heavy use of marijuana is tied to an increased risk of stroke.

That includes younger people, but those aging baby boomers who are celebrating legalization with a return to indulging are also prime candidates.

Last year, the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology reported that research showed marijuana users had a three-fold greater risk of death from hypertension, which includes such things as kidney damage, than non-users. The European Society of Cardiology quoted researcher Barbara Yankey, of Georgia State University’s School of Public Health in Atlanta, who said that “marijuana is known to have a number of effects on the cardiovascular system.

Marijuana stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, leading to increases in heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen demand. Emergency rooms have reported cases of angina and heart attacks after marijuana use.

“We found higher estimated cardiovascular risks associated with marijuana use than cigarette smoking,” Yankey said. “This indicates that marijuana use may carry even heavier consequences on the cardiovascular system than that already established for cigarette smoking.

“Needless to say, the detrimental effects of marijuana on brain function far exceed that of cigarette smoking.”

That’s why employers don’t care if you smoked tobacco recently, but they do care if you smoked pot.

The Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine recently reported on a different study that linked pot use to a higher risk of stroke and heart failure. And two years ago, the Journal of Alzheimer’s disease published the results of a study that showed smoking pot could heighten a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s because “the drug severely reduces blood flow in an area of the brain affected by the illness.”

Medical News Today said this research found that marijuana “reduced blood flow in nearly all areas of the brain,” but that “the hippocampus saw the largest reduction in blood flow with marijuana use.” Alzheimer’s strikes the hippocampus first; it’s the part of the brain connected with memory and learning.

In spite of this growing body of evidence, Health Canada lists the long-term risks of marijuana use only as “bronchitis, lung infections, chronic cough (and) increased mucus buildup in the chest.”

Now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has opened this Pandora’s box, there’s no slamming shut the lid.

It will only be after years of studies connecting marijuana to this, that or the other fatal or chronic illness and years of mounting costs to the health-care system that a light bulb will go on in someone’s head somewhere. Only then will campaigns begin to make marijuana use as socially unacceptable as cigarettes have become.

The light bulb should have lit up long before legalization happened. It’s only common sense that when you inhale particulates — whether from tobacco, marijuana, your neighbour’s firepit or another source of wood smoke — you will eventually pay the consequences.

Justin, what were you thinking — or not — when you decided legalizing marijuana was such a great idea?