According to a new report published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, an elderly man’s heart attack my have been triggered by a lollipop that had marijuana in it.
The report said that the 70-year-old man decided to try edible marijuana to see if it would reduce the pain from his osteoarthritis and help him sleep. While he had smoked marijuana when he was younger, he had never tried an edible before.
The lollipop had 90 milligrams of THC in it, which is over 12 times higher than the dose of a regular joint. The man almost ate the whole lollipop and within 30 minutes had “fearful hallucinations” and “crushing chest pain.”
The man, who has heart disease, was taken to a hospital where doctors said he had had a heart attack.
The authors of the report said that the large dose of THC caused a “sudden and unexpected strain” on the man’s body that may have triggered his heart attack.
“Marijuana can be a useful tool for many patients, especially for pain and nausea relief,” lead case report author Dr. Alexandra Saunders, of Dalhousie University’s Internal Medicine Program in New Brunswick, Canada said in a statement. “At the same time, like all other medications, it does carry risk and side effects.”
