June 23, 2022

"Starting in 2020 she began having mysterious bouts of illness where she would throw up over and over again."

"At first she and her parents — and even her doctors — were baffled. During one episode, Elysse said, she threw up in a mall bathroom for an hour. 'I felt like my body was levitating.' Another time she estimated that she threw up at least 20 times in the span of two hours. It wasn’t until 2021, after a half dozen trips to the emergency room for stomach illness, including some hospital stays, that a gastroenterologist diagnosed her with cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition that causes recurrent vomiting in heavy marijuana users."

From "Psychosis, Addiction, Chronic Vomiting: As Weed Becomes More Potent, Teens Are Getting Sick With THC levels close to 100 percent, today’s cannabis products are making some teenagers highly dependent and dangerously ill" (NYT). 

About that psychosis: "Psychotic symptoms while high can include hallucinations, trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality, strange behaviors (one young man would spend his days tying plastic bags into knots) or voices talking to them in their head...."

46 comments:

Jamie said...

But hey, it's only pot, right?

rehajm said...

...but still safer than alcohol, right? I was assured it's safer than alcohol...

Black Bellamy said...

I don't believe marijuana causes mental illness, but if you have a mental illness, the disinhibitory effect of pot will bring it right out.

Tina Trent said...

And my sky-high useless self-employment insurance subsidizes her party time, which includes several pricey stints inpatient, like all the other shithead kids in this article and their idiot parents who keep mewing "but it's just pot," and pretending they know something about Prohibition in the comment thread.

This time, very curiously, it is the legalization that is creating the very conditions Ken 'but we treated our plantation indentured servants real good' Burns highlighted (while disguising inconvenient facts) in the documentary Prohibition: increasingly powerful and dangerous substances and big increases in violent illegal trade by cartels in the very places where the drug is legalized.

Wonder if he'll do a sequel and leave out another set of inconvenient facts.

I especially like the emergency room doctor who points out that, contrary to indulgent mommies everywhere who said they had no idea the new pot was dangerous, the first scientific article about Cannabinoid Hyperemesis came out in 2004.

Old and slow said...

You know I would have thought she might have noticed the connection herself. I noticed that marijuana was having strange and unpleasant effects on me many years ago. I stopped smoking it. Simple.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If you can't carry the food to term... maybe, they should just abort their stomachs... to save the life of the pothead. I'm serious... I'm not serious.

This is a tragedy. What if you retire from the NFL early, because you wanted to smoke pot and then the pot was so strong, your career as a pot smoker is cut short?

Dave Begley said...

And the Dems are pushing for legalization in all 50 states.

The Dems hate kids.

stlcdr said...

And no one thought to determine the cause from the behavior, and to change that behavior? That doesn't need a doctor, just a basic understanding of cause and effect.

zipity said...


I'm still waiting for the flash-backs they promised me in the 70's.....

;)

Iman said...

Was it “intoxicating blasts of stupefaction” or “stupefying blasts of intoxication”?

I ferget…

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The new weed here in California is exceedingly strong. I had to give it up. Pretty sure it’s more addictive than the naturally grown stuff we were used to. Big money big labs and big bioengineering is going into the new strains. In a marketing sense they are trying to create differentiation from street weed, at a level the Cartel is unlikely to invest in equipment to duplicate.

Jupiter said...

"I noticed that marijuana was having strange and unpleasant effects on me many years ago. I stopped smoking it. Simple."

I had the same experience. And if I want to start smoking it again, I will. Glad it's legal, here in Oregon. Although I kind of doubt I would enjoy it. But I'm thinking about having a second look at hallucinogens.

There are lots of things that aren't good for you. Should they all be illegal? Bacon?

Enigma said...

Biden logic:

Greatly restrict nicotine in cigarettes to reduce addiction

Ban Juul flavored nicotine vaping products as too appealing to children

Ban menthol cigarettes because of "reasons," perhaps "racism"

Sic the EPA on air pollution and carbon emissions because of global warming and respiratory problems

But, legalize pot...because his voting base wants it????

---

Okay. Hmmm. I await the backlash and neo-prohibition because marijuana absolutely reeks. If you've ever been urban public spaces, that skunky smell all about you is not a skunk.

n.n said...

Possible, but not probable. Quantity, quality matters. Now fentanyl, on the other hand, causes "George Floyd" syndrome that is a progressive, cumulative condition, which must be proactively regulated.

n.n said...

If you can't carry the food to term... maybe, they should just abort their stomachs... to save the life

Or the rectum.

The effect of orally and rectally administered delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol on spasticity: a pilot study with 2 patients

The bioavailability resulting from the oral formulation was 45-53% relative to the rectal route of administration, due to a lower absorption and higher first-pass metabolis

Old and slow said...

" Blogger Black Bellamy said...

I don't believe marijuana causes mental illness, but if you have a mental illness, the disinhibitory effect of pot will bring it right out.

DISINHIBITORY? Really? I think perhaps you have things backward here.

Michael K said...

We are going to see more schizophrenia in the future as more teens take up Marijuana. Biden has helped by banning e-cigarettes, which are healthier than the real thing. Boys, so far, seem more susceptible to the MJ effect bon psychosis.

Howard said...

Modern eatable THC is too highly concentrated from an evolutionary adaptation perspective. Our THC receptors are overly sensitive probably because wild hemp is naturally low in THC and higher in CBD.

Mark said...

It's less about weed and the plant material and far more about extracts, wax, and 'shatter' which are done on dab rigs and are WILDLY more intoxicating. One hit of those will make regular users feel extremely stoned (think everclear), I can only imagine what teenage overuse of those products leads too beyond an impossibly high tolerance.

To add, many edibles are also in very high concentration. I found they put me to sleep until a friend mentioned that you could slice one gummy into 4 or 5 rigjt size pieces ... and some states sell gummies that are 5 or 10 times what you find here.

Any intoxicants are bad for 15 year olds. Trying to pretend that banning it will make it go away (worked for Fentanyl, right?) is naive. Time to regulate it like alcohol, make national strict standards eliminating concentrates and avoiding marketing to kids, and moving away from underground dealers who supply the underage market.

readering said...

Man has had a long time to figure out the difference between beer and whiskey. Hopefully will do the same for strains of pot. Have never touched the stuff myself, but still think it should be legal and regulated. Hope 2d Amendment jurisprudence does not make that impossible.

Richard said...

This can’t be true. I was told that marijuana is perfectly safe. Moreover, it is the wonder drug that can cure every known disease known to man. That is why all the states have passed medical marijuana laws. Are you telling me that the government wouldn’t lie to me? Inconceivable.

Mark said...

"I don't believe marijuana causes mental illness, but if you have a mental illness, the disinhibitory effect of pot will bring it right out."

Self-medication of psychological and emotional issues has a long and storied history. How much of this is kids with problems looking to numb them with whatever they can get their hands on?

Not surprisingly, people looking to self medicate at a young age have much higher than average psychological issues. All these anecdotes from the article don't seem to address this reality.

WK said...

Maybe they can develop a vaccination to address this malady.

Kay said...

The press goes full-on reefer madness as they’ve always done. I don’t know anyone who has ever had this kind of reaction from cannabis.

Ralph L said...

Soon to be a major motion picture, "Barfer Madness."

I was about to say it was pretty stupid for the parents and doctors (assuming they knew she was a pothead) not to figure out pot might be the problem, but then I remembered that my cats gave me chronic indigestion for over a dozen years, and neither I nor several specialists thought of them until after they'd died and I moved and improved.

Mason G said...

"I don't believe marijuana causes mental illness, but if you have a mental illness, the disinhibitory effect of pot will bring it right out."

Bill Cosby:

I said to a guy, "Tell me, what is it about cocaine that makes it so wonderful," and he said, "Because it intensifies your personality." I said, "Yes, but what if you're an asshole?"

Jupiter said...

"The Dems hate kids."

I know it looks like that, but it can't be so. Many Democrats have kids, and they can't all hate their own children, however their children may feel about them. I think it is more that the desire of Democrats for "control" leads them to increase and centralize power. Centralized power then attracts tyrannical scum.

Rollo said...

Better living through chemistry. Coca becomes cocaine. Opium becomes heroin. Frntanyl gets into everything. Pot and ecstasy become dangerous. And if industry and criminals aren't mixing dangerous ingredients, users are doing it themselves.

Big Mike said...

...but still safer than alcohol, right?

@rehajm, you have never thrown up after drinking alcohol?

Old and slow said...

"Blogger Jupiter said...

There are lots of things that aren't good for you. Should they all be illegal? Bacon?"

It is legal where I live as well, and rightly so. Doesn't make it a good idea to use it.

Daniel12 said...

Sigh, refer madness strikes again.

1. No one under 18 should be able to buy or access weed. We regulate access, as is done with alcohol and tobacco, and this should be more effective with legal weed than illegal, especially if we can get the black market to die out. Also, the concentration levels are stupid and I hope we regulate them.

2. The article cites a couple papers (some repeatedly). All have significant limitations explicitly stated, including causal order, not least because it's not easy to do legal research on this, especially in controlled settings. So we don't really have any sense of how common this is, and just a few estimates of relative risk (psychosis 2-4 times more likely, ie from very unlikely to slightly less very unlikely). The article also uses some totally irrelevant stats, like the proportion of college students who've smoked weed in the last year, that seem like an effort to accentuate the problem.

3. We have to balance risk against freedom, including freedom from the negative consequences of prohibition. God help me I hope we set the bar lower than alcohol and tobacco, which are two of the most damaging things to young people and everyone else.

4. Joe Biden is extremely skeptical of legalizing weed. The man is an old school drug warrior!

You guys are weird -- don't you usually look a bit more critically at articles in the New York Times?

Clyde said...

Don't. Do. Drugs.

Parents need to emphasize to kids just how dangerous those drugs are today, with pills you get online likely to be poisonous fentanyl. It's not worth playing Chinese Roulette with your life.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Nobody but addiction therapists will talk about "Gateway Drugs". Dealers always wanting to expand their product line make lots of stuff available. Not Dealers, per se, but Undocumented Pharmacists. It has been said that these school massacre perps are hefty weed heads. I could see that.

gilbar said...

But, don't forget
According to Old people, pot never bothered THEM, so it's all a myth
Stupid old people

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Josephbleau said...

There is a certain type of undergrad math major that can smoke significant pot and succeed, but in grad school they tone it down to the minimum, or quit grad school.

FullMoon said...

Parents need to emphasize to kids just how dangerous those drugs are today, with pills you get online likely to be poisonous fentanyl.

Problem is, kids hear this doom and gloom about killer drugs, then see their friends doing it with no bad effects. Then they try, with no bad effects, and disbelieve any negative news.

As they get older and see some of their friends graduate to being crazy junkies, then they realize the danger. Naturally, being young, they never think it could happen to them.

Every commenter here who has smoked weed knows someone who ended up a hard drug addict or criminal.

Of course,most people can smoke and do drugs and remain functional.

Josephbleau said...

It is common physiology that the brain undergoes significant realignment during puberty, (particularly in the white matter structure), up to age 25 or so. Go ahead and take a chance that pot and estrogen (for transitioning males) will turn this process in your favor and you will be all the smarter for it. I went with the natural program and am happy with the results.

Will Cate said...

This is a bullshit reefer madness story. 14 yr-olds? Pretty sure that's illegal. These parents have a kid problem, not a pot problem.

Quaestor said...

This reminds me of certain speculative writings regarding the evolution of domestic tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum. There are at least 81 species in the genus Nicotiana, and several hundred related species in other genera within the Solanaceae family. However, only cultivars of N. tabacum are grown commercially to any significant extent.

All members of the Nicotianeae tribe and many of the larger family, generate nicotine or nicotine-like substances in their tissues. Botanists agree that nicotine evolved as a chemical deterrent against leaf-munching insects. However, N. tabacum, with human assistance, has evolved, or rather co-evolved, an entirely new use for its nicotine.

By providing humans with an addictive psychotropic drug, domestic tobacco enjoys a parasitic relationship with humans which relieves the plants of most of the burdens of wild living. The seeds of the domestic tobacco plant are among the smallest of the Angiosperms, the flowering plants. Seeds are distinct from monilophytic spores in that the embryo is provided with a store of nutrients to help it establish itself in the soil before it can develop the tissues required for photosynthesis. Domestic tobacco has reduced the amount of nutrients in its seeds to the bare minimum needed for germination. No need to invest much energy in reproduction when humans can be influenced to do the work for you. Furthermore, domestic tobacco has concentrated its nicotine in the foliage, leaving the roots, stalks, and flowering bodies virtually unprotected against a host of insects and nematode root parasites. Again, no need to protect yourself when humans will guard you with meticulously engineered chemical pesticides.

This process of parasitic enslavement started when the ancient woodland tribes of the American southeast began to cultivate wild Nicotianas, eventually setting on N. tabacum, breeding and cross-breeding their cultivars for a more fragrant smoke and a stronger nicotine kick. By 1492 tobacco cultivation had spread to the Caribbean islands when Columbus found it being grown and smoked by the Arawaks. (BTW, the word tobacco is Arawakian and refers to the wooden tube used to smoke the dried Nicotiana leaves and not the plant itself.) Even then domestic tobacco had lost the ability to survive by its own means. The European settlers just accelerated the process.

Something very similar has been happening to pot since at least the 1970s. Cannabis sativa was once a ubiquitous and generally benign weed. It is now rapidly becoming a monster. Well I remember those sophomoric rationalizations about pot versus tobacco. Hey, at least I'm not smoking cigarettes and making R. J. Reynolds richer. I greeted those comments with a skeptically arched eyebrow. Today, I think I'd bust out laughing.

Jason said...

PepsiCo owns Frito-Lay, which makes Corn Chips.

I am long PepsiCo.

Jason said...

I don't smoke marijuana. Never have.

But I grew up in Hawaii. And I'm here to tell you, y'all are smoking some LAME shit.

gilbar said...

Jason said...
I don't smoke marijuana. Never have.
But I grew up in Hawaii. And I'm here to tell you, y'all are smoking some LAME shit.

a) Jason reminds us; that he is COMPLETELY IGONORANT
b) Jason reminds us; that he is thinking about how things USED TO BE
c) Jason reminds us; that he makes assumptions without ANY Basis
Protip: We Ain't talking about SMOKING, please TRY to keep up

gilbar said...

Daniel 12 said...
No one under 18 should be able to buy or access weed. We regulate access, as is done with alcohol and tobacco

How's that work with alcohol and tobacco?

Daniel12 said...

Gilbar, pretty well actually. Smoking rates for kids had actually declined dramatically, through good enforcement of age restrictions and good public health campaigns -- until fruity vapes screwed it all up.

And if you're a bar or liquor store owner, selling to underage kids is a great way to get in a whole heap of trouble (at least in some places).

Legal marijuana dispensaries are super serious about age restrictions as well.

typingtalker said...

Pharmacology class, day one ... All drugs have side effects.