New info on marijuana: are you vomiting?

[markbrewer]

Over the past week, i have researched and found some information that needs to be shared. it has to do with an illness called Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, or CHS. CHS strikes persons who have used marijuana daily for long periods of time, usually several years. the symptoms are extreme nausea that lasts for days accompanied with vomiting episodes and extreme abdominal pain. the pain associated with the vomiting has caused a new word to be invented, "scromiting", which is screaming with pain while vomiting.

i fully realize that the above paragraph might read like a fictional horror tale made up by an anti-marijuana activist. i assure you that is not the case.

I used marijuana when i was a teenager and on into my 20's. i enjoyed it very much the first few times, say 20 or 30 times. but along in there somewhere, i started noticing that i was usually miserable when i smoked: nervous, paranoid, worried and unhappy. i started using it much less after that, not because i believed it was bad or in anyway harmful, but i had ceased to enjoy the high. i would occasionally smoke in different situations, but by about my 27th year, i had quit it altogether. until recently, i was strongly in favor of legalization (i am in the process of re-evaluating my stance on that.)

i will open another post to explain how i came to discover CHS.

 

[markbrewer]

I discovered Cannabinoid Hyperemesis because my best friend has it. for the past 5 or 6 years, he has lived in a cycle of nausea, vomiting and extreme abdominal pain. the sickness lasts for days, then it goes away for 3 or 4 days, then returns. he has seen doctors and been to the emergency room many times. none of them have been able to help him. his last incident lasted ten days. one week ago today, he called me, in tears and asked me to pray for him. i prayed with him and then called our pastor to pray for him. then, my wife and i wondered, not for the first time, if it was possible his marijuana use was causing his continual stomach problems. so we did a search on "marijuana use stomach". it had never occurred to us to look it up before. we quickly found CHS and every single detail, every symptom of it matched my friend exactly.

CHS mostly occurs in longtime, heavy users of marijuana. my friend has smoked cannabis since 1974. he has smoked almost every day, except for one six month break. he had stopped, but began using again due to pain issues. this is somewhere above 40 years of continual, heavy usage.

there is no medication, no treatment of any kind at this time except to stop using marijuana in any form. i have called and spoke to several addiction agencies this past week - none of them have even heard of CHS. but one very helpful young lady at an opiod center checked into it and called several rehabs. they all told her that abstaining is the only treatment for CHS there is.

 

[ReesePiece23]

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[markbrewer]

i realize that it seems ridiculous that CHS produces nausea when it is well known that marijuana can help and prevent nausea. but what we are talking about is that somehow THC interferes with the mechanism of the brain that deals with nausea. i can't pretend to explain that, but there are many health related sites with information on CHS that do attempt explanation. please find them and research this if you are a marijuana user. YOU DESERVE TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.

i leave with two last thoughts. One is that marijuana today is much, much stronger than it was in the '70s, when i was a teenager. regular use of this stronger pot is going to build it up in your body faster.

the second thought is this: i have always noticed that marijuana affects people differently. remember above how i described that it came to be no fun? it affects some people that way. other users never lose the "honeymoon". they never want to quit, never see any reason to. this CHS is like that in that it took around 35 - 40 years to hit my friend. but the other folks you will read about went into CHS much earlier. some of them seemed to get it in under ten years.

i didn't post this because i'm "against" marijuana. i posted this because so few have ever heard of it and users need to know,

 

[ReesePiece23]

Sorry, I made a post earlier but wiped it because it wasn't particularly useful. I started talking about CBD as a possible circuit breaker.

 

[markbrewer]

Reese: what seems to bring on CHS (best i understand) is massive amounts of THC. if CBD has no THC, MAYBE it could be helpful. but honestly, i really doubt it.


after thinking about this, it's my opinion that the much stronger herb of today is a main contributor to the appearance of this disorder. but i don't really know.

 

[Kenny'sID]

I smoked daily but lightly for about 40yrs... never could do it like some, as in a few joints a day. I stopped dead 4 or 5 yrs ago.

I did know people who smoked amazing amounts, so I'm surprised I've never heard of this.

At least there is a way out.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Wow That is really scary and Im so glad that I never got into that stuff.

 

[markbrewer]

I smoked daily but lightly for about 40yrs... never could do it like some, as in a few joints a day. I stopped dead 4 or 5 yrs ago.

I did know people who smoked amazing amounts, so I'm surprised I've never heard of this.

At least there is a way out.

Kenny: one of my reasons for this thread was to put this in front of persons like yourself who know long time marijuana users. if you know of someone suffering from this, you can now point them in the right direction. most doctors know nothing about CHS.

 

[chilehed]

Never heard of it before, thanks. I've been clean for a long time and hadn't personally seen any dope for decades until I found some of my kid's a few years ago; back in my day it would have been considered top-top-shelf stuff but he said it was garbage weed in today's market.

I'm really glad I quit, and I'm glad my kid's out of the house.

 

[markbrewer]

i've been continuing to read about CHS this week and i found a really interesting thread on reddit. from there, i saw that there are people who have developed CHS in less than 2 years of use.

the fact that my friend used marijuana for many years without nausea and vomiting seems to hint that there's something different in the mix.

 

[markbrewer]

i created this thread 3 and a half years ago but i think it's worth bumping to the top. CHS hasn't gone away and more people are suffering from it and many don't know what's causing it.