SCIENCE BRIEFING: POT SMOKING NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, CORONARY STUDY FINDS

Their kids rebelled and became stockbrokers. The pharmaceutical industry
views them as a massive market for drugs to fight hair loss and impotence.
Now, age is bringing baby boomers yet another indignity:

Smoking a joint may increase the chance of a heart attack, especially in
someone already at risk, according to a study by Boston researchers
published in the current edition of the journal Circulation.

For the first hour after smoking marijuana - a period longer than some
highs - a person's risk of a heart attack is five times greater than usual,
the study declared, adding marijuana use to a growing list of pleasures
that may trigger heart attacks, including sex and big meals.

For the largest group of marijuana users - those between 18 and 25 years
old - the risk doesn't mean much, said Dr. Murray Mittleman, an
epidemiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and one of
the study's authors.

But for older people with conditions that make them prone to heart attacks,
such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure or diabetes, Mittleman
said, "the fivefold increase in risk may pose enough of a problem that
should make them pause and think."