A man suffers from a heart attack after sucking on a cannabis lollipop strong enough to kill & # 39;

A 70-year-old man nearly died after sucking on a so powerful cannabis lollipop that she gave him a heart attack.

Doctors say that the pacifier contains more than 12 times more THC, the active ingredient that makes users more active, than one finds in a single spliff.

The elderly patient began to have scary hallucinations that raised his blood pressure – and led to an outbreak of stress hormones.

These eventually triggered myocardial ischemia – a particularly painful form of cardiac arrest, caused by a shortage of blood flow to the heart.

The patient had already been diagnosed with hardening of the arteries or coronary artery disease. He ate the controversial candy to relieve a bout of chest pain.

Dr. Alexandra Saunders, a cardiologist at Dalhousie University in Canada, said, "Marijuana can be a useful tool for many patients, especially for pain relief and nausea.

"At the same time, like all other medications, there are risks and side effects.

"In a recent case, inappropriate dosage and oral marijuana use by an elderly patient with stable cardiovascular disease caused distress that caused a cardiac event and subsequently reduced cardiac function."

In October, Canada became the second country in the world to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes, after the United States.

Some forms of this medicine have been legalized in the UK for medical reasons, but use for recreational purposes is prohibited.

But lollipops containing super powerful cannabis have been sold online to children.

The whimsical sweets, named THC suckers after the active ingredient of the weed, are shipped from Amsterdam to the UK.

Dr. Saunders said, "Edible marijuana-based substances can be a major unrecognized risk for patients with cardiovascular disease.

"With widespread legalization and the increasing use of more and more care, education and research are needed on how each marijuana formulation can affect and sometimes even compromise the cardiovascular system of our aging population." . "

The case report, described in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, indicated that the man was taking the appropriate medications for the heart when he was eating most of the lollipop.

It was infused with 90 mg of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) to relieve pain and help with sleep – causing a "potentially serious heart attack," said Dr. Saunders.

It is a much larger dose than the 7 mg usually ingested by smoking a joint or the 2.5 mg of dronabinol (Marinol).

It is a synthetic THC drug marketed for the stimulation of nausea and appetite in patients with AIDS and cancer.

Dr. Saunders said: "He felt overwhelming chest pain after consuming most of a marijuana lollipop.The entire lollipop contained 90 mg of THC, so about 70 mg was consumed.

"In the next 30 minutes, the patient described scary hallucinations during which he called a family member because he" had the impression of dying. "

He was transported to the Emergency Department of the St John's Regional Hospital. The man had smoked marijuana in his youth.

But he had not done so since the THC content had increased significantly from 3% to 12%.

He also did not know the prolonged and delayed effect of oral administration of THC.

Dr. Saunders said: "The patient's heart event was likely due to unexpected pressure on his body, caused by anxiety and scary hallucinations, caused by the unusually high amount of THC that he had ingested . "

His sympathetic nervous system was stimulated, causing a quick release of heartbeats, hypertension and stress hormones.

Dr. Saunders said: "After the disappearance of the psychotropic effects of the drug and the end of his hallucinations, his chest pain has stopped."

A number of previous case reports, as well as epidemiological studies, have linked cannabis to strokes, heart attacks and abnormal heart rhythms.

Dr. Robert Stevenson, from the Cardiovascular Department of the Canadian government's Horizon Health Network in Saint John, added, "Most of the previous research on marijuana-induced myocardial ischemia was primarily aimed at younger patients and no to its different formulations and potentialities.

"As a result of the widespread legalization of marijuana, health care providers need to understand and manage cannabis use and its complications in older patients, particularly patients with cardiovascular disease."

An accompanying editorial explained that a stroke or heart attack could be caused by the consumption of chemicals or by indirect effects such as acute anxiety, hallucinations or psychosis.

People who are not used to taking psychotropic drugs can become very distressed by impaired cognition and feelings of loss of control from THC.

Professor Neal Benowitz of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California at San Francisco, the author of the editorial, added: "The legalization of cannabis benefits from a considerable support from the public, but also raises public health issues.

"Some users may benefit from social and medical effects, but others may have adverse health effects.

"Little information has been disseminated to patients or health care providers about cannabis use in elderly patients, especially those with cardiovascular disease.

"For better or for worse, providing advice and care to these patients who use cannabis is now necessary to provide optimal medical care to these patients."