Study shows cumulative cannabis use doesn’t lead to hardened arteries

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Atherosclerosis doesn’t appear to be a result of continued cannabis consumption

A new study just completed at the University of Bern in Switzerland busts yet another myth about cannabis consumption. The idea that continued consumption could lead to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, has been one of the many arguments cannabis opponents have used to keep the plant from being legalized and, like the rest of those arguments, there now appears to be no scientific basis for making that claim.

The study was conducted with the assistance of a pool of 5,115 Black and Caucasian men and women. Researchers looked at how marijuana exposure may affect the carotid intima-media thickness, measuring it using ultrasound. Of the participants, complete data for only 3,257 was able to be gathered, and 2,722 of those acknowledged that they had, at some point, consumed marijuana. 374 were current users and, in all the participants, “multivariable adjusted models showed no association between cumulative marijuana exposure and high carotid intima-media thickness” among tobacco smokers. On the other hand, continued exposure to tobacco was “strongly associated with high carotid intima-media thickness.”

This was similar to the results found in a similar study conducted almost three years ago. It, too, was based on data available for a cross-section of demographics and, as with the latest study, found no evidence that cannabis consumption could be linked to atherosclerosis. However, the study, and the latest, proved that tobacco consumption conclusively led to hardened arteries. Both studies concluded that “tobacco smoking was associated strongly with both AAC [abdominal artery calcium] and CAC [coronary artery calcium].”