Latest news with #Myran
Time of India
22-04-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Hospital visits for Marijuana use linked to 72% higher dementia risk, major study warns
Marijuana's potential medicinal benefits have shifted public perception of the psychoactive drug derived from the Cannabis plant, contributing to its growing popularity. Countries like Canada, Uruguay, Mexico and Thailand, and 22 states in the US have legalized recreational marijuana, while 50 countries have approved it for medicinal purposes. However, one cannot ignore that its regular use has been associated with a heightened risk of a range of life-threatening conditions like strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and myocarditis. 4/20 day, celebrated every year on April 20, by weed lovers, brought the drug into the spotlight, sparking discussions on its growing popularity as well as risks. A new study published in the journal JAMA Neurology that links an increased risk of dementia to cannabis use is especially crucial in this regard. The terms cannabis and marijuana are often used interchangeably, but they are not exactly the same. While cannabis refers to the plant Cannabis sativa, marijuana is one of the products derived from this plant that has a high concentration of THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid. Dementia and Marijuana connection The connection between long-term cannabis and dementia isn't new and has been demonstrated in the previous studies. An American Journal of Psychiatry study discusses how cannabis use over a long period of time is linked to hippocampal atrophy and poorer cognitive function in midlife, which are known risk factors for dementia. The new study delves into the five-year cognitive impact of cannabis-related medical emergencies, revealing a significant association between such events and an elevated risk of developing dementia. 'Someone who has an emergency room visit or hospitalization due to cannabis has a 23% increased risk of dementia within five years compared to someone who was at the hospital for another reason. They have a 72% greater risk compared to the general population,' says study coauthor Dr Daniel Myran, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Ottawa in Canada. 'Those numbers have already factored out other reasons for dementia, such as age, sex, mental health or substance use, and whether or not you have chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease,' Myran added. Earlier research shows marijuana users are nearly 25% more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization than nonusers. 'However, this is not a study that anyone should look at and say, 'Jury's in, and cannabis use causes dementia,'' Myran said. 'This is a study that brings up a concerning association that fits within a growing body of research.' While medical marijuana is considered to be safe in limited doses under expert supervision, it is more complicated than that. Many people with cannabis use disorder are not able to stop using it and that's where the real problem lies. US federal law doesn't allow the use of marijuana. However, many states allow medical use to treat pain, nausea and other symptoms. The THC in marijuana affects the brain, mood, behavior and thoughts, the reason why it is called psychoactive. Medicinal marijuana can be advised for conditions like Alzheimer's disease, HIV/AIDS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Epilepsy, and serious nausea or vomiting caused by cancer treatment. However, are its side effects worth it? Let's understand. What's cannabis use disorder? Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD), a medically recognized condition is marked by a problematic and often compulsive pattern of marijuana use. Its severity can vary from mild habits that interfere with daily life to full-blown addiction. Marijuana is part of cannabis, but not all cannabis is marijuana. Cannabis use disorder mainly involves THC-containing substances such as marijuana. Addiction to marijuana could happen when the brain's reward system takes over and amplifies compulsive marijuana-seeking. People with cannabis use disorder are unable to stop using even though they encounter health or social problems from use, Dr. Robert Page II, a professor of clinical pharmacy and physical medicine at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora told CNN. 'When they stop using it, they either have withdrawal symptoms or have very bad mental health symptoms,' he added. 'They might have quite severe depression, or they might have anxiety, all of which can send them to the hospital.' According to the CDC, around 30% of people can get addicted to marijuana. This can pose risk of attention, memory and learning problems, as per CDC. What you need to know about marijuana's safety 'The other takeaway from this study is that many people believe marijuana to be natural and therefore safe,' Page said. 'It is a psychotropic medication, so it's going to have psychotropic effects. If you have underlying psychiatric issues, realize that you need to be transparent with your provider and let them know if you're using this medically or recreationally.' According to mayoclinic, the other side effects of medical marijuana include increased heart rate, dizziness, problems with thinking and memory, slower reaction times, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, panic attacks, and hallucinations, among others. Rastafari community of Antigua gain sacramental rights to marijuana
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Marijuana hospital visits linked to dementia diagnosis within 5 years, study finds
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Sunday is 420 day, when lovers of marijuana get together to celebrate their fondness for weed. Yet research shows that regular users of marijuana are at risk for serious conditions, including strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle. Now, an increased risk of dementia can be added to the list, according to a large study of more than 6 million people published April 14 in the journal JAMA Neurology. 'Someone who has an emergency room visit or hospitalization due to cannabis has a 23% increased risk of dementia within five years compared to someone who was at the hospital for another reason. They have a 72% greater risk compared to the general population,' said study coauthor Dr. Daniel Myran, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Ottawa in Canada. 'Those numbers have already factored out other reasons for dementia, such as age, sex, mental health or substance use, and whether or not you have chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease,' Myran said. Earlier research shows marijuana users are nearly 25% more likely to need emergency care and hospitalization than nonusers. 'However, this is not a study that anyone should look at and say, 'Jury's in, and cannabis use causes dementia,'' Myran said. 'This is a study that brings up a concerning association that fits within a growing body of research.' The study is a red flag for health professionals who should be screening for cannabis use disorder, said Dr. Robert Page II, a professor of clinical pharmacy and physical medicine at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora. 'People with cannabis use disorder are unable to stop using even though they encounter health or social problems from use,' said Page, who chaired the medical writing group for the American Heart Association's 2020 scientific statement on marijuana. 'When they stop using it, they either have withdrawal symptoms or have very bad mental health symptoms,' he added. 'They might have quite severe depression, or they might have anxiety, all of which can send them to the hospital.' The potency of weed has skyrocketed over the years, which can heighten health risks and is leading to a global rise in marijuana addiction as well as cannabis use disorder, according to a 2022 study. Addiction to marijuana can happen to about 30% of people who use cannabis, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disorder also comes with a higher risk of attention, memory and learning problems, the CDC finds. 'The other takeaway from this study is that many people believe marijuana to be natural and therefore safe,' Page said. 'It is a psychotropic medication, so it's going to have psychotropic effects. If you have underlying psychiatric issues, realize that you need to be transparent with your provider and let them know if you're using this medically or recreationally.' Researchers looked at medical records between 2008 and 2021 for more than 6 million people between the ages of 45 and 105 without dementia who lived in Ontario. Of those, over 16,000 had been seen due to negative responses to marijuana. 'Within five years of an emergency room visit or hospitalization for cannabis, 5% of people were diagnosed with dementia, and within 10 years, 19% of people were diagnosed with dementia,' Myran said. Rates of emergency room visits due to marijuana increased fivefold in adults between the ages of 45 and 64 and nearly 27-fold for people 65 and older during those 13 years, according to the study. 'While this study was done in Canada, it should apply to all of North America including the US,' he added, pointing to a May 2024 study that shows daily or near daily use of marijuana surpassed alcohol by 2022. If the connection between cannabis use and dementia does turn out to be causal, just how might marijuana trigger cognitive decline in regular users? One possibility is that daily or near daily use of marijuana changes neural connectivity in the brain, Myran said. 'There's certainly a pathway where there's potential inflammation and microvascular damage from marijuana,' he said. 'It could be that regular cannabis use causes people to develop other risk factors for dementia, such as depression, social isolation and lower educational attainment. And it could be that people who regularly use cannabis are more likely to have major trauma to the brain such as a motor vehicle collision.'
New York Times
14-04-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Older People Seeking Care for Cannabis Use at Greater Risk for Dementia
Middle-aged and older adults who sought hospital or emergency room care because of cannabis use were almost twice as likely to develop dementia over the next five years, compared with similar people in the general population, a large Canadian study reported on Monday. When compared with adults who sought care for other reasons, the risk of developing dementia was still 23 percent higher among users of cannabis, the active ingredient in marijuana, the study also found. The study included the medical records of six million people in Ontario from 2008 to 2021. The authors accounted for health and sociodemographic differences between comparison groups, some of which play a role in cognitive decline. The data do not reveal how much cannabis the subjects had been using, and the study does not prove that regular or heavy cannabis use plays a causal role in dementia. But the finding does raise serious concerns that require further exploration, said Dr. Daniel T. Myran, the first author of the study, which was published in JAMA Neurology. 'Figuring out whether or not cannabis use or heavy regular chronic use causes dementia is a challenging and complicated question that you don't answer in one study,' said Dr. Myran, an assistant professor of family medicine at University of Ottawa. 'This contributes to the literature and to a sign, or signal, of concern.' Dr. Myran's previous research has found that patients with cannabis use disorder died at almost three times the rate of individuals without the disorder over a five-year period. He has also reported that more cases of schizophrenia and psychosis in Canada have been linked to cannabis use disorder since the drug was legalized. The latest study, focusing on dementia, adds to a growing body of literature on regular or heavy cannabis use and cognition. Researchers have reported impacts on verbal learning, memory and attention, while imaging studies have pointed to changes in the brain related to the use of cannabis and other substances. Veterans with traumatic brain injuries in addition to cannabis use disorder may be at heightened risk for early-onset dementia, researchers reported last year. But many of the studies are relatively small. The new report's strength was its large sample and the ability to track patients over time who did not have a diagnosis of dementia when they entered the study, said Madeline Meier, an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University, who was not involved in the study. 'They were able to rule out dementia at the time of the first cannabis visit, and were able to show the temporal order — the cannabis came first, and the dementia came second,' said Dr. Meier. Her research, which has followed and periodically tested a cohort of over 1,000 individuals over a period of many years, has linked cannabis use and neuropsychological decline. 'I think you want to combat this whole idea that cannabis is harmless and maybe even has some medical benefits,' Dr. Meier said. 'This study is showing an association that I think people should take seriously and say, 'Maybe this is putting me at risk.'' She noted that the work by Dr. Myran and his colleagues also found that people seeking care for alcohol use were even more likely to receive a dementia diagnosis than were cannabis users. 'I'm worried about the substance abuse in that Baby Boomer age,' she said. More and more people, including seniors, are using cannabis. Medical visits related to cannabis increased more than fivefold among adults 45 and older between 2008 and 2021, the new study found. Among adults 65 and over, visits increased almost 27-fold. The study included more than 6 million people age 45 and over who did not have a diagnosis of dementia at the start of the research. Of them, 16,275 had an acute-care medical encounter because of cannabis. The patients with cannabis-related visits were compared to the matched general population, and in a separate comparison, to 140,824 matched patients who needed medical care for all other reasons. Within five years, 5 percent of those with acute care cannabis visits received a dementia diagnosis. The figure for individuals needing care for other reasons was 3.6 percent, and for similar individuals in the general population, 1.3 percent. But people who are heavy cannabis users differ from those who are not in a variety of ways, some of which may help explain the increased risk for dementia, Dr. Myran explained. While some of the factors can be accounted for, he said, 'you can't control for all of them.' Another unknown is self-medication, he said. Someone who has started experiencing symptoms of cognitive decline may be more likely to turn to cannabis. If so, then 'it looks as if the cannabis is causing dementia, but it's just on the pathway — they were already developing dementia,' Dr. Myran said. After making adjustments for age, sex, income and other factors, including other health conditions, he and his colleagues determined that patients who sought care for cannabis-related reasons were 1.23 times as likely as those who had gotten any kind of acute care to be diagnosed with dementia, and 1.72 times as likely as those in the healthier general population.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Yahoo
Bemidji man sentenced to 21 years for distributing child sexual abuse images
Apr. 1—BEMIDJI — A Bemidji man has been sentenced to 21 years in prison after an investigation revealed that he had advertised and distributed child sexual abuse material over the dark web. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, 47-year-old Craig James Myran was an active participant on a site on the dark web that was dedicated to discussing and trafficking child sexual abuse material. For years, he used an account with a unique username to make over a thousand posts in which he shared images of child sexual abuse on the site. "In at least one post, Myran requested specific files of known child sexual abuse material from other users," a release from the U.S. Department of Justice said. "And in another post, he advertised over 100 images depicting the sadomasochistic sexual abuse of two prepubescent minors." Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant on Myran's apartment in Bemidji on Dec. 8, 2022, where they found several hard drives and a cell phone. Forensic analysis of these devices uncovered evidence establishing that Myran was the user of this unique account on the dark web site — including files of the child sexual abuse material that he shared and requested on the website, as well as a message directed to his unique alias — and thousands of other images of child sexual abuse material, the release said. According to the government's sentencing memorandum, Myran's sexual exploitation of minors was not limited to his activity on this particular dark-web site. "He was simultaneously an active participant on multiple other dark-web sites dedicated to trafficking in child sexual abuse material and reported that he previously produced his own child sexual abuse material by screen-recording minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct during online webcam interactions," the release noted. On Nov. 20, 2024, a federal jury convicted Myran for advertising, distributing and possessing material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He was sentenced on Tuesday to 262 months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud remarked, "The defendant's crimes reflected disregard for the victims' humanity. He treated society's most vulnerable victims, young children, as sex objects and nothing more." Judge Tostrud added that Myran's "crimes were far from impulsive. He did not stumble onto the dark web by accident. He used it in an effort to conceal his activities, because he knew what he was doing was very wrong," the release said. The case is the result of an investigation by the FBI Minneapolis Field Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorney's Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit
CBC
18-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
PM hopes families find closure after Winnipeg landfill search yields remains of 2 murder victims
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he hopes recovering the remains from a Manitoba landfill of two First Nations women murdered by a serial killer brings closure to their families. RCMP have confirmed two sets of remains discovered at the Prairie Green landfill in the past month belong to Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran. A search of the Winnipeg-area landfill began in December in the hopes of finding the two women killed in 2022 by Jeremy Skibicki. He was convicted last year of first-degree murder in the slayings of Harris, Myran and two other Indigenous women. A trial heard that he targeted them at homeless shelters in Winnipeg and disposed of their bodies in garbage bins. Carney says he wanted to recognize the gruesome discovery and pay tribute to the women's families who fought to bring them home. "I just think it's important to acknowledge the findings from the Prairie Green landfill in Winnipeg and express to the families of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris, and to everyone who loves these women, recognition of just how horrific it is to relive this tragedy over and over again," Carney said during an unrelated news conference in Iqaluit on Tuesday. "I hope that this unfortunate event … begins to provide some of that closure." RCMP confirmed a day earlier that a second set of remains found at the landfill belong to Myran. The women's families, Indigenous leaders and advocates pushed for years for a search of the area, taking their fight to Parliament Hill and the steps of the Manitoba legislature. It is believed the remains of Myran and Harris ended up at the privately run landfill after they were killed by Skibicki. The remains of Rebecca Contois were found in two places: a garbage bin and at a different landfill. An unidentified woman whom Indigenous grassroots community members named Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, has not been found. Police have not said where she might be. Police had refused to search the Prairie Green landfill over safety concerns. The Progressive Conservative government at the time also said it wouldn't support a search and touted its decision during the 2023 provincial election campaign. Kinew promised a search and, after his NDP was elected, the province and federal government put up $20 million to fund a search. Wayne Ewasko, interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives, apologized in the legislature earlier this month, saying the party had lost its way.
