This is real although described poorly. It has been commonly seen in hospitals for at least for 10-15 years although it often wrongly gets called cyclic vomiting syndrome instead.
These people who have Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome cost individual hospitals all over the land MILLIONS of dollars a year, as they no surprise are often not insured, plus they generally refuse to believe that cannabis is causing this, and they just keep consuming it, and getting re-admitted.
They have unrelenting vomiting, and often abdominal pain, and get dehydrated and have to be hospitalized on IV fluids. They get GI scans and tests and blood tests and it all adds up. They generally demand narcotics. Some patients have 10-20 expensive hospital admissions per year with this.
Once a person gets this it is like an allergy and keeps happening every time they “smoke up” over and over again. A hospital with just 10 of these people could end up with unpaid bills of 10 people x 10 admissions x $15,000 (at least!) = $1.5 million avoidable cost. This does not count the costs of separate bills like physicians. It is generally more.
The fastest “treatment” is hot showers. It works right away, although they get sick again as soon as they get out of the shower. The patient checks in, demands narcotics and anti-nausea drugs, then gets in the shower and is there half the day.
I think cannabis has been altered over the years, and contains different chemicals and quantities of chemicals, and as a result, this condition (Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome) is MUCH more common.
It is yet another good reason to never use cannabis.
Not to mention the drain on resources and the time spent explaining over and over again why they will not receive narcotics in the hospital. The other side to this is we are now having to tailor pain treatments for chronic marijuana users. When they injure themselves narcotics are not very effective to control their pain so we have to initiate protocols with things like ketamine (an IV anesthetic) to try to control their pain. Marijuana is causing significant chronic health problems that no one wants to admit
“It is yet another good reason to never use cannabis.”
I would suggest it says its never a good idea to use too much cannabis for too long. Too much of anything isn’t good for us.
I’m a medical marijuana patient in Florida.
After 20+ years of taking prescribed Pharma drugs as prescribed for depression & anxiety I gradually just got worse. I started using cannabis in 2015 out of desperation & got better. Granted its not for everyone, but I am so thankful it works for me.
I’ve never heard of this vomiting effect but I’m not surprised about effects upon appetite and digestion as well as the effect showers have upon stoned individuals. I had my day in college, then it started making me paranoid which was no fun, so I stopped. But, marijuana is known to have a strong effect upon inappetance to the point of being prescribed to chemo patients. I also recall very well how cleansing a shower was when I got too stoned, seemed to wash the buzz right out, I could think much more clearly afterwards. Like a strong pot of coffee for a drunk, I guess.
People who think marijuana is some sort of panacea are usually deluded, they’re searching for rationalizations of their habit. Recreational use for a buzz has nothing whatsoever to do with medical use, though.
People who think marijuana is the worst thing ever and anyone who uses it is some sort of criminal reprobate are deluded on the opposite end of the scale, though. I don’t do it anymore but moderate occasional use isn’t going to hurt anyone, not in my opinion.