Implications of the Pot Boom

With eight states and the District of Columbia now having legalized recreational marijuana, plus many more states allowing is medical use, we may be able to start discerning some implications from the current pot boom. A pair of Friday presentations at the EMS State of the Science Conference examined aspects.

California legalized marijuana in 2016, and some problems have arisen with edibles (pot-infused candies and other treats), San Francisco medical director Clement Yeh reported: Their potency can be much higher than traditional brownies, and some products may not have their concentrations accurately labeled. One type, the now-banned Korova 5150 bars, had marijuana levels 10 times as high as the traditional pot brownie. (The map shows the availability of other, less-potent Korova products in California and the southwest.) 

With legalization, Yeh said, we may start anticipating more cases of CBD hyperemesis syndrome, an emerging problem where chronic long-term users develop intractable nausea and abdominal pain after using (marijuana is generally an antiemetic). There are preliminary reports of an uptick of this in Colorado, which in 2014 became the first state to legalize recreational use. 

Colorado Springs’ Stein Bronsky noted an increase in the number of drivers in fatal crashes who had used in his state, also observing that if a driver in such a crash had consumed alcohol, police generally didn’t investigate their potential pot use, meaning the figure may be undercounted. The overall number of fatal crashes isn’t up, though some data suggests minor crashes may be increasing in the first states to legalize. 

With the legalization movement spreading, we’re still in the honeymoon period of legal pot, Bronsky said, so we likely don’t yet have a full picture of its benefits and risks. Ultimately, he predicted, we’ll discover it’s not extremely dangerous, but also not as completely benign as advocates hope.