Study: Smoking marijuana raises the risk of heart attack, stroke

Marijuana raises risk of heart attack, stroke

Using marijuana can increase your chances of a stroke and heart failure, a new study has warned, the Daily Mail reports.

Scientists say that smoking cannabis increases the risk of stroke by 26 percent and heart failure by 10 percent.

The drug was also linked to a variety of factors known to increase cardiovascular risk, including obesity, high blood pressure, smoking and alcohol use.

As more states look to legalize the drug, or to prescribe it medically to alleviate symptoms of other diseases, the study sheds new light on how the drug can seriously affect cardiovascular health.

The study analyzed over 20 million records of young and middle-aged patients from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample - compiled from one-fifth of all U.S. health centers.

Compared to patients who didn't report cannabis use, the team found a significantly increased risk in the pot-smoking patients for stroke, heart failure, coronary artery disease and sudden cardiac death.

Fatal drug overdose cases rapidly rise

The rate of fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. more than doubled since 1999, outpacing suicide and car accidents in 2015 as a cause of death, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC researchers examined data from the National Vital Statics System to see the effects of drug trends across the nation from 1999 to 2015, ABC News reports.

Rates of fatal drug overdoses have dramatically increased since 1999, rising from 6.1 deaths per 100,000 people to 16.3 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, according to the CDC report.

That number is higher than the rate of death for suicides in the U.S., 13.4 deaths per 100,000, or the rate of death from car accidents, 11.1 deaths per 100,000 residents.

The overall number of deaths due to opioid overdoses quadrupled during the same time period, according to figures previously published by the CDC. Opioids killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, more than any year on record, according to the CDC, which estimates that 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.

People in all age groups were more at risk for dying from drug overdoses but those between their mid-40s and 60s were hardest hit, according to the new report.

And despite persistent concerns over teens and young adults abusing drugs, middle-aged adults were the most likely to suffer a fatal overdose, according to the report.

People between the ages of 54 to 65 saw the biggest percent increase in fatal drug overdoses during the study period, rising nearly fivefold from 4.2 deaths per 100,000 to 21.8 deaths in 2015.