Cannabis view

I thank Dr Ladouceur for providing a balanced view on the benefits of cannabis in his February editorial.¹ While I have not collected statistics, it is my impression that increasing numbers of daily cannabis users are presenting to my emergency medicine practice with cannabis-induced hyperemesis. Many of these patients use cannabis for anxiety management, and usually this has not been initiated by a physician. My suspicion is that this is a dose-related condition, and one that will emerge increasingly as cannabis use spreads.

As a medical community, it might behoove us to exercise some vigilance in assessing the risks and benefits of cannabis prescribing, so that we do not repeat the detrimental situation that arose with the liberalizing of narcotic prescribing in the 1990s and 2000s.

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