Older Canadians taking much marijuana after it was legalised: Study
More Canadians aged 65-years-old and above have been landing in emergency rooms for cannabis poisoning after the country legalised marijuana, The New York Times has reported.
This is according to a study published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, which also stated that the rate of poisonings doubled after the country legalised the sale of the cannabis flower, and it tripled 15 months later, after legalising the sale of edibles.
The research focused on 2,322 emergency room visits for cannabis poisoning among those within the age range 65 in Ontario, after visits from 2015 to 2022.
This made researchers able to analyse what happened before and after October 2018, when Canada legalised the sale of dried cannabis, and January 2020, when the sale of edibles was legalised.
The research found that in 2015, 55 emergency room visits caused by cannabis poisoning were recorded. The figure was said to have rose to 462 by 2021, and then in 2022, slightly fell to 404.
The lead author of the study, Nathan Stall, who is also a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital and researcher at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, stated that although researchers and emergency room doctors found that older citizens intentionally used the drugs, other old citizens sometimes take them by accident after they mistook edibles for regular food or snacks.
These patients are said to experience symptoms of cannabis poisoning such as dizziness, confusion, nausea, loss of coordination and balance, drowsiness and hallucinations.
Calling for more attention to be given to drug use by the elderly and its health effects, the researcher said, “It’s somewhat in the shadows, and there is some ageism and bias in thinking that older adults aren’t using drugs.”
The doctor said he undertook the study after being called into the emergency room to consult on an octogenarian who was experiencing severe confusion. The patient was barely conscious and showed strokelike symptoms. Multiple tests showed no clear cause, until Dr. Stall ordered a toxicology test and found cannabis in the patient’s urine.
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