CHRONIC MARIJUANA USE BAD FOR HEART, STUDY FINDS

Activists Counter That Study Used Perpetual Stoners

WASHINGTON -- Heavy marijuana use can boost blood levels of a
particular protein, perhaps raising a person's risk of a heart attack
or stroke, U.S. government researchers said recently.

Dr. Jean Lud Cadet of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of
the National Institutes of Health, said the findings point to another
example of long-term harm from marijuana. But marijuana activists
expressed doubt about the findings.

Cadet said a lot of previous research has focused on the effects of
marijuana on the brain. His team looked elsewhere in the body,
measuring blood protein levels in 18 long-term, heavy marijuana users
and 24 other people who did not use the drug.

Levels of a protein called apolipoprotein C-III were found to be
30-per-cent higher in the marijuana users compared to the others. This
protein is involved in the body's metabolism of triglycerides -- a
type of fat found in the blood -- and higher levels cause increased
levels of triglycerides, Cadet added.

High levels of triglycerides can contribute to hardening of the
arteries or thickening of the artery walls, raising the risk of
stroke, heart attack and heart disease.

The study did not look at whether the heavy marijuana users actually
had heart disease.

"Chronic marijuana use is not only causing people to get high, it's
actually causing long-term adverse effects in patients who use too
much of the drug," Cadet, whose study is in the journal Molecular
Psychiatry, said in a telephone interview. "Chronic marijuana abuse is
not so benign."

The marijuana users in the study averaged smoking 78 to 350 marijuana
cigarettes per week, based on self-reported drug history, the
researchers said.

The researchers said the active ingredient in marijuana, known as THC,
seems to overstimulate marijuana receptors in the liver, leading to
overproduction of the protein. Cadet said higher levels of the protein
in marijuana users could raise future risk for cardiac abnormalities,
blood flow problems, heart attack and stroke.

People with major medical or psychiatric illness, alcohol dependency
and other drug use such as cocaine or heroin were excluded from the
study.