Unlike alcohol, which slows your heart rate, marijuana speeds it up, which could negatively affect the heart in the short term. Still, the largest-ever report on cannabis from the National Academies of Sciences, released in January and read by most marijuana doctors in Florida and other states, found insufficient evidence to support or refute the idea that cannabis may increase the overall risk of a heart attack. On the other hand, low to moderate drinking about one drink a day has been linked with a lower risk of heart attack and stroke compared with non use. A director at Alcohol Research UK, told The Guardian that those findings should be taken with a grain of salt since any protective effects tend to be canceled out by even occasional bouts of heavier drinking.
In November, a group of the nation’s top cancer doctors issued a statement asking people to drink less. They cited strong evidence that drinking alcohol as little as a glass of wine or beer a day increases the risk of developing both pre and postmenopausal breast cancer. The US Department of Health lists alcohol as a known human carcinogen. Research highlighted by the National Cancer Institute suggests that the more alcohol you drink — particularly the more you drink regularly — the higher your risk of developing cancer. For Florida medical marijuana, some research initially suggested a link between smoking and lung cancer, but that has been debunked. The January report found that cannabis was not connected to any increased risk of the lung cancers or head and neck cancers tied to smoking cigarettes.
A research note published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that, when adjusting for other factors, having a detectable amount of THC (the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) in your blood did not increase the risk of being involved in a car crash. Having a blood-alcohol level of at least .05, on the other hand, increased that risk. Still, combining the two appears to have the worst results. The risk from driving under the influence of both alcohol and cannabis is greater than the risk of driving under the influence of either alone,” the authors of a review written in the American Journal of Addiction.
It’s impossible to say whether drinking alcohol or using marijuana causes violence, but several studies suggest a link between alcohol and violent behavior.
According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, alcohol is a factor of all violent crimes, and a study of college students found that the rates of mental and physical abuse were higher on days when couples drank. On the other hand, no such relationship appears to exist for cannabis. A recent study looking at cannabis use and intimate partner violence in the first decade of marriage found that marijuana users were significantly less likely to commit violence against a partner than those who did not use the drug.
Both marijuana and alcohol temporarily impair your memory, and alcohol can cause blackouts by rendering the brain incapable of forming memories. The most severe long-term effects are seen in heavy, chronic, or binge users who begin using in their teens. Studies have found that these effects can persist for several weeks after stopping use so Florida medical marijuana doctors say, as well as many other physicians nationwide. There may also be a link between daily weed use and poorer verbal memory in adults who start smoking at a young age. Chronic drinkers display reductions in memory, attention, and planning, as well as impaired emotional processes and social cognition and these can persist even after years of abstinence say a writer for All Natural Medical Solutions.
A new study suggests that anyone who smokes marijuana faces a threefold risk of dying from high blood pressure than people who have never used the drug. Those findings sound alarming, but it’s important to keep in mind that, like any study, this one has limitations, including that it defines marijuana “users” as anyone who’s ever tried the drug and that it doesn’t differentiate among strains of a highly unregulated product. However, the study highlights some key areas for future study including how using cannabis might affect the heart. Here’s what you need to know. “We found that marijuana users had a greater than three-fold risk of death from hypertension and the risk increased with each additional year of use,” The lead author of the study and a doctoral student of epidemiology and biostatistics at GUS, said in a statement. For her paper, published Wednesday in the where they looked at more than 1,800 people age 21 or older who had been recruited previously as part of a large and ongoing national health survey. In 2008, researchers asked them whether they had ever used marijuana or hashish. People who answered “yes” were classified as marijuana users; those who answered “no” were classified as nonusers. The researchers then merged that data with statistics on death from all causes, pulled from the US National Center for Health Statistics, and adjusted it to rule out any factors that could muddle the results, like gender, race, and a history of smoking tobacco. Overall, those classified as florida medical marijuana users were found to be more times as likely to die from hypertension, or high blood pressure, than those who said they had never used. That risk also appeared to rise with what the researchers labeled “each year of use.” Here’s the problem: The study’s authors defined anyone who said they had ever tried marijuana as a “regular user.” Other research suggests this is a poor assumption. According to a recent survey, about 58% of Americans have tried cannabis at some point, yet only 19% said they used the drug “regularly,” defined as “at least once a month.” Also, the study was observational, meaning it followed a group of people over time and reported what happened to them, so the researchers cannot conclude a cause and effect they can’t say that legalize smoking marijuana causes high blood pressure, only that the two things appear to be linked. The authors wrote, “From our results, marijuana use may increase the risk for hypertension mortality.” Another issue is the unregulated nature of the existing, and largely illegal, cannabis market. People are using a wide variety of strains whose concentrations of compounds — there are up to 400 in marijuana, including THC and CBD — can differ drastically. While the study is far from conclusive, it sheds light on an important potential health risk linked with marijuana use. Scientists know that cannabis affects the heart, but because of the limited research available on the drug, it has been hard to suss out how it affects things like high blood pressure. For example, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ingesting marijuana increases heart rate by between 20 and 50 beats a minute for anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours. But a large, recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found “insufficient evidence” to support or refute the idea that medical marijuana doctors in florida cannabis might increase the overall risk of a heart attack, though it also found some limited evidence that using the drug could be a trigger for the phenomenon. When it comes to cannabis’ effect on blood pressure, the results are also inconclusive. One very small study, for example, found a sharp increase in blood pressure immediately after regular pot users stopped using the drug. “Abrupt cessation of heavy cannabis use may cause clinically significant increases in blood pressure in a subset of users,” that study’s researchers wrote. And according to the Mayo Clinic, using cannabis could result in decreased, not increased blood pressure.
Today, the subject of legalizing marijuana is a very touchy one. Some people (Group 1) believe that it is an awful drug that causes damage both to the users and to innocent people, and should, therefore, be banned. Yet, others (Group 2) believe that marijuana is a “miracle drug” that cures illnesses, so they push for it to be legalized. Still others (Group 3) are inclined to meet in the middle – they themselves want nothing to do with the drug and think it has some ill side effects, but if it medically helps other people, they are okay with that, too, so they do not much care either way. However, there are, in fact, truths to each belief. Marijuana, weed, dope, pot, cannabis, hashish, bud, skunk, grass, ganja, Herb and about 1,200 other slang terms are used for the naturally occurring substance that has been used for hundreds of years as a relaxant or a mild hallucinogenic. It is actually so potent that it can be detected in urine up to seven days after casual use and up to 30 days after regular, heavy use. In the United States of America, marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug. It is so popular that at least one in every three Americans has used it once. It is a mixture of dry, shredded, green/brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves of the hemp plant. When smoked, it gives the user a sense of relaxation, happiness, and slowed reflexes. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has not approved or recognized the plant as a medicine. Scientific studies have shown certain chemicals in marijuana, known as cannabinoids, has led to at medications approved by the FDA that contain cannabinoid chemicals in a pill form. The continued research of marijuana could lead to more medications that can help more patients in the future. Ask a Florida Marijuana Doctor if you have any questions about dosing guidelines for medical cannabis use.
Here is how Group 1 defends their argument: occasional marijuana use is not believed to be harmful, however, negative side effects of marijuana can impact your body as well as the mind, can slow down reflexes, and can impair decision-making capabilities. Group 1 believes this is can be paralleled to drunk driving – alcohol has the same effects, yet, it is illegal to drink and drive while under the influence, so why should it be legal to drive, etc. while under the influence of marijuana? Isn’t a high driver who kills a mother and her infant just as deadly as a drunk driver who does the same?
Group 2 understands that most marijuana users feel relaxed and happy, and that cannabis has been reported to ease certain pains, eliminate nausea, and is also considered to be helpful in stopping vomiting in advanced cases of cancer or AIDS. People suffering from serious illnesses who lose appetite are also reported to find weed helpful in improving and augmenting their appetite. Group 2 uses this information to support their dispute.
Group 3 sees both sides – the negative side effects or poor judgment and motor skills and deems it dangerous to be used when driving or for public recreation. However, they are also aware of the medical victories hemp has brought to many patients; therefore they generally support medical marijuana use, while remaining a smidge skeptical about public use. If you are a patient in need of special care and think a marijuana treatment may be what you need, you should contact a medical marijuana Doctor in Florida and one who believe in the medical benefits of cannabis. When it comes to you getting treated, we do not want you to have to wait around. With us, you no longer have to wait 90 days! Are you wondering how to get a Medical Marijuana Card in Florida? It is as easy as making an appointment with your doctor and filling out an application. Once you have called us and made an appointment, consult with one of our physicians. Upon approval, you will need to fill out a registration form for an ID Card. This Florida Medical Marijuana Doctors Order for education will ensure you receive your proper dosage amount, will make certain that your prescription is not filled out and given to someone else, and most importantly, it will allow you to legally purchase the cannabis. All Natural MD Florida.