Cannabis News Protecting Patients Access to Medical Marijuana
  Pot Use Tied To Stroke in Three Teenagers
Posted by CN Staff on April 26, 2004 at 18:09:01 PT
By Amy Norton  
Source: Reuters  

cannabis New York -- Large doses of marijuana might in rare instances lead to stroke in teenagers, according to a new report. Although it is unusual for teens to suffer a stroke, and there have been few reports of stroke linked to marijuana use, the cases of three teenage boys suggest the association is real, researchers report.

The boys all had a similar type of stroke in a brain region called the cerebellum shortly after smoking marijuana. Their strokes could not be explained by blood clots that traveled from the heart, blood vessel inflammation or other potential causes.

There may be some unique features of bingeing or sporadic use of large amounts of marijuana that might put the adolescent brain at risk, Dr. Thomas Geller of St. Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri told Reuters Health.

"This is obviously very rare," he added.

Geller and his colleagues report on the cases in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Past research has shown that marijuana use can lead to excessively low blood pressure, slowed heart rate, dizziness and balance problems. According to Geller and his colleagues, there have been a few reports of marijuana-associated stroke, which have all been in males between the ages of 15 and 34.

In these latest cases, all of the boys showed similar symptoms shortly after smoking pot, including severe and worsening headache and problems seeing and walking. One boy had slurred speech and appeared drunk.

Two of the teens died less than 24 hours after being admitted to the hospital. Autopsies confirmed that the boys had strokes caused by disrupted blood flow to the cerebellum, as did biopsy from the third teen, who survived.

All of the boys admitted to having recently smoked marijuana, and appeared to use the drug occasionally rather than regularly. The teen who survived suffered his stroke symptoms after heavy marijuana use.

There is research evidence that inexperienced marijuana users have a short-term drop in blood flow to the brain after smoking the drug, the authors note in the report.

Geller said his team's hypothesis is that irregular but high-volume use of marijuana--or a contaminant they were unable to find--might prevent the cerebellum from getting enough blood to meet its needs.

"We think that adolescents--maybe only male ones--who binge on marijuana may put themselves at a risk that they are not aware of," Geller said.

Source: Pediatrics, April 2004

Source: Reuters Health
Author: Amy Norton
Published: April 26, 2004
Copyright: 2004 Reuters

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Comment #28 posted by afterburner on April 28, 2004 at 13:01:05 PT
Prohibition Causes Poisoning
"Nearly all the harm done to users and non-users alike by illegal drugs is because the drugs are prohibited. Thousands were poisoned by adulterated booze during Prohibition and thousands more are dying today because of adulterated drugs" --CN BC: PUB LTE: Prohibition Not Working http://www.mapinc.org/newscc/v04/n640/a02.html?397

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Comment #27 posted by FoM on April 27, 2004 at 21:14:43 PT
billos
Thanks! I find this article unreal. I hope they will give us more then vague details soon.

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Comment #26 posted by billos on April 27, 2004 at 17:47:29 PT:

FOM...........
I heard a few Dj's talking about it as they did their show. (on more than one station)It wasn't a news broadcast. I guess when I said "big news" I meant that it was being talked about on the airwaves. (Of course the Dj's made it clear that they were not endorsing anything) I don't know how they heard but it sure is scuttlebut on the airwaves. I am hoping no one listens and it will go away...

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Comment #25 posted by FoM on April 27, 2004 at 16:58:05 PT
Petard
Thanks!

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Comment #24 posted by jose melendez on April 27, 2004 at 16:51:06 PT
oops, thanks
I see.

Ahem. Well, now, I'm really glad I did not send that to Robert Dupont's staff, eh?

(sheepish grin)

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Comment #23 posted by FoM on April 27, 2004 at 16:45:07 PT
Jose
You lost me. All I mean is I would be involved in another cause if cannabis was harmful. I'd work on helping Vets or Seniors or something.

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Comment #22 posted by jose melendez on April 27, 2004 at 16:40:10 PT
Also . . .
OK, here is a serious announcement, as frivolous as it may sound.

(gulp)

Due to events precipitated by local law enforcers, I am thinking about running for office:

http://rxpot.com/cannabisnews/voteJose.html

I'm the Jester in the dunk tank.

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Comment #21 posted by Petard on April 27, 2004 at 16:37:23 PT
Fom, here's one of them

This one is the "buy" rating for Pharmos's stock based on the FDA granting "fast track status" on their synthetic CBD for head trauma.

It states "300,000" cases in the USA every year that this has the potential toward life saving and/or impairment preventative. That would make 3 teens out of 300,000 or less than .0001% of annual cerebral trauma cases, except that these 3 kids are out of the entire 200 year history of the USA (unless some Colonial cannabis farmer suffered a stroke while tending his crops out in the field 150+ years ago and even then the question would be causation: malaria, yellow fever, some other mosquito borne pathogen, another pathogen, another stress trigger, etc., etc..)

So, if they want to push this stroke causation story crap then they really are violating the Sherman Act. A billion $ LEGAL market that could be squashed or significantly curtailed by their garbage science.

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Comment #20 posted by jose melendez on April 27, 2004 at 16:34:14 PT
FoM!
Please forgive me, my friend what are you talking about?

As you might imagine, our side suffers from considerable amounts of battle fatigue, as it were.

I'm guessing that if alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, Prozac and caffeine users were being jailed annually by the hundreds of thousands, some of the people you deal with on a daily basis would be rather reluctant to speak out, and might even harbor some resentment that would make such friendly interactions few and far between.

I think what we are missing from the other side of this very wide fence is an explanation as to how anyone can truly believe that efforts to restrict the cannabis trade (a violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act) have not already yielded the highest consumption rates in history, considering that well over 50 percent, and perhaps even more than 60 percent of high school seniors use pot. Yet we have a national 'hard drug' addiction rate of a fraction of one percent. Do such statistics not indicate that pot use leads away from more dangerous addictive behaviors?

Between the far more harmful side effects of well lobbied, F.D.A. approved so called 'purified' medications and the demonstrably life shattering effects of incarceration, a criminal record or prison rape, we wonder what legal or moral justification there is for prohibiting cannabis, or any other illicit drug, besides the jobs created for those who would otherwise be forced to fight real crimes.

For example, here in Florida, Bella Donna is prolific in certain areas. Were Angel Trumpets advertised daily as 'the most dangerous drug' or people's property seized and kids told every day of how powerful and dangerous Bella Donna can be, youth access, abuses and deaths would most certainly skyrocket along with demand.

Note also that cancer, addiction and impairment are not reason enough to incarcerate citizens or seize their assets if the substance is a legal poison, such as nicotine, alcohol or most pharmaceuticals. Also, thousands have participated in several peer reviewed international driving studies, all of which conclude that marijuana users often outperformed even sober folks behind the wheel.

With overwhelming consistency, studies and reviews of relevant scientific literature conclude that even the regular use of marijuana is much safer than most legal drug use, and despite claims that cannabis ought to remain illegal because it might be smoked, current law penalizes possession, without exceptions for ingestion method.

The hard facts are that cannabinoids, even if smoked and especially if vaporized or consumed via sublingual or food preparations, ameliorate symptoms of pain, nausea and stress far safer (with more control over titration and with zero deaths unrelated to their prohibition) than almost every taxed, regulated and consumed medication or intoxicant. Suppression of cannabis has yielded increased youth access, abuses and homicide rates, exactly as a similar "noble experiment" to criminalize alcohol use accomplished in the last century.

Similarly to bathtub gin, and again by way of example, there is every indication that methamphetamine proliferation and profitability increases are seen wherever meth laws are implemented and aggressively enforced.

Also, those who suggest that stronger pot is new or dangerous consistently omit at least two material, relevant facts.

1. Higher active ingredient strength almost always entails less smoking.

2. Hashish, which contains almost double the THC content of the very strongest strains, have been known, smoked and eaten for thousands of years.

Meanwhile, today's kids are offered Ritalin or Prozac, exposed to D.A.R.E. curriculum in lieu of history or science, and encouraged to consume daily amounts of sugary, caffeinated beverages and fatty foods. Would arrest ameliorate the social harms from those products?

Sigh. Please know that this was not aimed at you, but rather is a draft I was unable to allow myself to send to DuPont's kind and very professional assistant, for fear of going on too long. I see I've accomplished that quite handily, apologies if I have offended anyone with the content and extent of my remarks, which I do reserve the right to revise and extend, as they say.

I reserve the

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Comment #19 posted by FoM on April 27, 2004 at 15:58:01 PT
Thanks afterburner
You know something? If I honestly felt that Cannabis killed or seriously harmed people by its use I wouldn't care about changing the laws. I don't want harm to come to anyone.

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Comment #18 posted by afterburner on April 27, 2004 at 15:41:23 PT
In a Black Market, Cannabis Might Be Laced w/ Meth
That would propel a stroke. There is no way to absolutely conclude that the stroke occurred because of cannabis, a contaminant or some other factor. This story smacks of the recent British coroner's report citing Cannabis toxicity. [ Cannabis is Blamed as Cause of Man's Death http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/18/thread18175.shtml ]

MFA for 2004: make your food your medicine!

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Comment #17 posted by FoM on April 27, 2004 at 14:23:21 PT
billos
That bad news. How can radio stations take a vague reuters article and play it on the air? Aspirin we know kills many people every year and it's legal and fine. Aspirin is only one of many things that can be consumed that can kill. These strokes couldn't have happened because of cannabis. It had to be a contaminant.

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Comment #16 posted by billos on April 27, 2004 at 13:48:07 PT:

The feds pulled this one off . . . . . . . . . . .
as they did with the "ecstasy" experiment when said they gave monkeys "ecstasy" and the animal died. A year later when all but the feds forgot about it the confession appeared that it was not ecstasy they gave the monkeys, but speed.

The Souders and the Bushes and the Walters will be going around saying "I told you so"......and intnsify the war on cannabis.

This is BIG news in Connecticut.......on almost every radio station.

And the war rages on...............

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Comment #15 posted by Lucas on April 27, 2004 at 11:25:55 PT
marijuana saves teen stroke victim from death
> reports of stroke linked to marijuana

it is standard WOD tactics these days to do intake questionnaires attempting to determine if marijuana use is admitted by the patient. It becomes part of the WOD propaganda for "marijuana related hospital admissions"

from this data, they have now located 3 hospital admissions for stroke (in children!), which include mention of admitted marijuana use by the patient

maybe the stroke patient who used the most marijuana was the one whose brain was most protected...

the article supports that conclusion, it states that the only stroke victim to survive has used massive amounts of marijuana just prior:

> In these latest cases, all of the boys showed similar symptoms shortly after smoking pot, including severe and worsening headache and problems seeing and walking. One boy had slurred speech and appeared drunk.

the symptoms are stroke symptoms, not marijuana symptoms the phrase shortly after, is extended to imply that the teens died of marijuana use within 24 hours

> Two of the teens died less than 24 hours after being admitted to the hospital. Autopsies confirmed that the boys had strokes caused by disrupted blood flow to the cerebellum, as did biopsy from the third teen, who survived.

Two teens admitted for stroke, who admitted to smoking marijuana "recently" (is that in the last 30 days?), die.

> All of the boys admitted to having recently smoked marijuana, and appeared to use the drug occasionally rather than regularly. The teen who survived suffered his stroke symptoms after heavy marijuana use.

Repeat THE TEEN WHO SURVIVED suffered his stroke after HEAVY marijuana use.

Sounds to me like the marijuana is what saved this child!

so, if the questionnaire were to ask whether the patient used milk, we could assume that stroke would also be linked to milk

and if the patient who drank the most milk immediately before the stroke survived, we could thank the milk

then we could do a double blind of milk vs marijuana for stroke victims

its all disinformation

Lucas

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Comment #14 posted by FoM on April 27, 2004 at 10:34:13 PT
Hi Marc
You very well could be right!

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Comment #13 posted by FoM on April 27, 2004 at 10:33:27 PT
Petard
I hope they were helpful articles. I'm not sure which article you are referring to from last Fall but if I find one I'll post it as a link.

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Comment #12 posted by Marc Paquette on April 27, 2004 at 02:11:46 PT:

Contradictory studies
Perhaps there was either paraquat or fomaline sprayed on it. About 35 years ago or less, they used to spray formaline on low quality pot because it gave an incredible and abnormal high. Formaline which is a liquid form of formaldahyde, is a highly cancerous agent and it's used as an embaulment agent by funeral homes to preserve dead bodies longer. It can be highly toxic if consumed.

Another curious fact in this story is that they say marijuana causes low blood pressure. This is very strange because the AMA, Health "Hell" Canada and the IOM say that marijuana causes high blood pressure. So, we'll have to make a compromise here, level out these studies and conclude that it doesn't either cause low or high blood pressure.

They never mentioned the name of the kids that died either and they didn't say where they were from. So, I guess this article is pure misinformation..probably cheap fuel for the DEA's Bush and Walters war against pot!

Peace,

Marc



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Comment #11 posted by Petard on April 27, 2004 at 01:16:01 PT
FoM

I wasn't around CNews back in 2001 so I hadn't seen those older articles. I remembered the ones from last Fall though (I know there's a couple more too). Thanks for looking those up.

Interesting that the sythentic chemical, more likely to fit the definition of a true "drug", gets impressive reviews while the "sky is falling" over the raw, natural, plant material.

Seems to me also, that Montana couple could use the defense that cannabis is not a "dangerous drug" by introducing Pharmos's and GW Pharma's clinical evaluations and the 5,000 year history disproving the "dangers" of cannabis. At least insofar as the "dangerous" part goes (drug Maybe, dangerous Not). Of course that article is journalistic crap like most concerning cannabis anyway so who knows if they got the charges correct? (Controlled substance, yes, currently, dangerous, absolutely not, drug or is it a plant?) Semantics do make a huge difference in criminal proceedings sometimes, especially where juries are involved (that's why prostituters, I mean persecuters, er, prosecutors, fight against inclusion of evidence that casts doubt upon the very charges they bring).

If there's business and stock involved the products must be safe and OK for people, if there's no $ and no corporats behind it then it must be dangerous is all they're saying.

Now let's all be good little sheep and follow the master's voice as he leads us over the cliff to our doom. After all, it's the Patriotic thing to do. Just ask the idiot in charge, he'll tell us so.

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Comment #10 posted by FoM on April 26, 2004 at 23:26:12 PT
This Article is Upsetting
Because of the names in the article and their children I think posting this here in a comment is better then on CNews.

***

Couple Sentenced for Growing Pot

April 26, 2004

Rick Peuse, 57, and his wife, Dallas Peuse, 51, of Columbus, have been sentenced to 20 years in the Montana State Prison system on charges relating to a marijuana growing operation in Stillwater County.

The Peuses have five children, with one still living at home, and Dallas Peuse had worked as a substitute teacher in the Columbus School District before her arrest.

District Court Judge Blair Jones handed down the sentences Friday at district court in Columbus and suspended some of the prison time for each defendant.

The nine-hour sentencing hearing came six months after the Peuses pleaded guilty to three drug counts last October. The counts included criminal production of dangerous drugs, criminal possession of dangerous drugs and criminal possession of drug paraphernalia. At that time, both admitted to the cultivation of more than 30 marijuana plants.

Complete Article: http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/04/27/build/state/75-potgrowers-sentenced.inc



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Comment #9 posted by FoM on April 26, 2004 at 22:08:29 PT
Petard
I went and found a couple article after I read your comment. Here they are!

Keep Your Brain From Going To Pot: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17814.shtml

Marijuana-Based Drug Could Curb Brain Damage: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16741.shtml

Marijuana Ingredient Helps Head Injuries: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11046.shtml

Pharmos Close To Stroke Compound: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9163.shtml

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Comment #8 posted by Petard on April 26, 2004 at 21:57:35 PT
And What About the Fast Track Status For...

Synthetic CBD to be injected straight into the brains of Stroke and other cerebrovascular incident victims? Remember the Pharmos product from last Summer/Fall news stories? (Dexanibinol or something like that)

Definitely sounds like propaganda in light of this seemingly forgotten factoid, especially considering that Pharmos stock was being rated a "buy".

Somehow the one synthetic cannabinoid is highly rated, but gee, must be all those, what 300 billion gazillion quadrillion, other chemicals besides CBD in pot that's the problem. Yeah that's it, that's the ticket, tar did it. But no wait. How do we know they were smoking and not vaporizing as the 3 out of approx. 3 billion hits served daily were poorly documented?

Methinks the prohibitionists are trying to scrounge up some bodies to dispel the 5,000 year safety record of cannabis.

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Comment #7 posted by observer on April 26, 2004 at 21:32:38 PT
''coincidence due to the small number of cases''
Large doses of marijuana might in rare instances lead to stroke in teenagers, according to a new report.

This sounds like a crock.

the cases of three teenage boys suggest the association is real, researchers report.

Three? Three boys had a stroke after smoking pot? But people, even "teenagers" sometimes have strokes. When 1/4 of teens smoke pot, obviously some of those who suffer strokes will also be pot smokers. If you have propaganda to make, you will say that the pot caused the strokes. Others might be more circumspect. How many teens have cerebellar strokes, without pot? Reuters was too busy making sure that the pot is "tied to" stroke to tell us.

This article (March 2004) reveals something Reuters forgot to mention.

Dr. Brinks suggested that the possible mechanisms for CNS infarction were due to either hypotension -- a unique endothelial reaction -- or toxic effect of a contaminant of the marijuana. However, he pointed out that the marijuana use could also have been a coincidence due to the small number of cases. http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/A9FF32AC741E302E85256A050061B74E

Coincidence? You bet. The March 2004 article also admitted that these were "three cases in four or five years." Hardly an epidemic of anything. Reuters omitted that also.

When NIDA contracts and big prohibitionist government grants are on the line, you can bet the goodly reseachers have a vested interest in reporting something bad about pot.

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Comment #6 posted by Virgil on April 26, 2004 at 20:09:11 PT
More lying propaganda of course
What is funny is that hemp seed in the diet might reduce the ever increasing risk of stroke that comes from clogged arteries and inflamation that sets it free to cause a clot and a stroke.

America had its low-fat diet and now is on the call to reduce carbs. Of course people are fat because they take in too many calories and it is reasonable to cut out something. However the call to include omega-3 in the diet is going to see a positive call for consumption as the modern diet just does not include the levels of omega-3 that it evolved with. Hemp is the answer for stroke and heart disease also.

Davidson is a little town known mostly for the college that Woodrow Wilson attended, but it has a first class health food store. I went down there Friday looking for hemp seed mostly and when it was not on the shelf, I made the effort to inquire about it. Just what kind of health food store can you be without hemp seed? Now really.

They did have 24 ounces of flour marketed as protein for $29.99 and a 14 ounce package of the same for $19.99. They did say that they would have hemp bars in a month or so.



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Comment #5 posted by Robbie on April 26, 2004 at 20:07:48 PT
I don't think so
It's a great little story, isn't it? Doctors talking about horrendous things that can happen to the teenage brain.

Can happen.

Did happen? No. Will happen? "...it COULD!" It's like the panels showing the different eras in MJ prohibition in Grass. "New excuse for marijuana prohibition? IT MIGHT POSSIBLY MAYBE DO SOMETHING NEGATIVE TO SOMEBODY SOMEDAY!"

Gotta love this line: "Large doses of marijuana might lead to stroke in teenagers"

Might! It's conjectural but, hey, the "report" is probably being paid for with your tax dollars, so it must be legitimate.

"Although it is unusual for teens to suffer a stroke..."

Unusual? Could you cite a source for those strokes?

"and there have been few reports of stroke linked to marijuana use"

Again...huh? What? Where? When?? OOPS! Guess you messed up your objectivity again, eh?

"the cases of three teenage boys suggest the association is real"

Real? Didn't you just say there have been reports of unusual stroke? Weren't those real? Where are your sources for those, and how do you define reality? Seems that if you say there HAVE been strokes, you could produce a record or something. Maybe? Might?

Yeh..."liberal" media

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Comment #4 posted by Ron Bennett on April 26, 2004 at 19:55:04 PT
Water Toxicity Kills Far More...Outlaw H2O?
Water toxicity (there are various names for the condition) kills far more people each year - water in large quantities (*not* talking about drowning) is quite deadly.

Truth of the matter is they're desperate and grasping at straws...for as others point out, if strokes from cannabis were truly a problem, there would be plenty of documentation about it by now...and a lot less people living...know lots of people who have/use cannabis and NOT a single one of them has experienced a stroke as a result...though 100% of them have consumed H2O though...perhaps that's the smoking gun LOL!

Correlation does not equal causation ... except when it comes to the drug war it seems - built on a foundation of half-truths and outright lies.

Ron

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Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 26, 2004 at 19:06:43 PT
A Poll But Really Just a Question
How many people here have ever met anyone who has had a stroke from smoking Cannabis? I'd even be happy with hearsay.

We had a good friend who couldn't smoke. He had a bad heart from when he was young. He died from a major heart attack in his early 40s. That really is the only person I know that had any trouble but he knew he had a bad heart and chose not to do anything that could have made it worse.

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Comment #2 posted by breeze on April 26, 2004 at 19:05:53 PT
Even MORE Propaganda
Man the WOD is getting desperate!

When "professionals" start trying to tie in strokes and heart attacks to marijuana, you gotta know that the heads are getting desperate. Cocaine abuse has been known to cause heart attacks, but it took either a WHOLE lot of the stuff, or the person had a preEXISTING condition.

How often are kids tested for these conditions? Almost never. How often do kids see doctors for regular checkups? And the big what if, did anyone bother to ask the kids if they had been hit in the head, or if they had used any OTHER drug? Sitting in one place too long can cause blood clots as well.

The lies just keep growing.

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Comment #1 posted by RasAric on April 26, 2004 at 18:51:30 PT
Yeah uh-huh...ok
Here we go again with articles that use definitive titles with a ton of mays, mights,and maybes in the body of the statement.

In summary:we have indisputable proof that cannabis leads to strokes in teenagers....MAYBE

One thing for certain is, thanks to this study, we have even more fear based propaganda than we did yesterday to fight this war on pot smokers.

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