MARIJUANA LINKED TO HEART ATTACKS

Risk For Older People Is Higher, Study Says

Marijuana may trigger heart attacks in middle-aged and elderly people,
a new study says.

The research, to be presented today at an American Heart Association
seminar in San Diego, is believed to be the first to document the
increased risk of heart attacks in marijuana smokers. It raises
questions about whether marijuana should be approved for pain relief,
the authors said.

Marijuana causes the heart to increase by 40 beats a minute. It also
causes a person's blood pressure to increase when lying down then fall
quickly when standing up, said Dr. Murray Mittleman, director of
cardiovascular epidemiology at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center in
Boston.

Mittleman studied marijuana use in 3,882 patients who had heart
attacks. About 124 were current marijuana users, and 37 smoked pot
within 24 hours before their heart attack. Of the 37, 9 used it within
one hour before experiencing heart symptoms.

"We found that during the first hour after use, the risk of a heart
attack is 4.8 times higher than during periods of non-use," Mittleman
said. "In the second hour, the risk drops to 1.7 times higher. The
short-term risk is considerable, especially for older patients with
other risk factors, and we now have millions of baby boomers who are
reaching the age when the risk of coronary heart disease increases for
both men and women."