Can you overdose on cannabis? With marijuana now being a familiar fixture in our culture, it is often not considered in the same light as other substances. And there have been no fatal incidents recorded as a result of cannabis overdose. Yet the recent spike of emergency room visits related to the ingestion of cannabis shows that cannabis overdose is a very real issue.
Novus Health’s Medical Director, Dr. Michael Szabo, sat down to discuss this issue on CBC’s Metro Morning with Matt Galloway.
“Overdose,” Dr. Szabo explains, “refers to any dosage that is above an appropriate amount for the user. People who have overdosed on cannabis often come to the emergency room with symptoms like elevated blood pressure and heart rate, vomiting, and a general state of panic.”
Over the past five years, emergency room visits for cannabis-related issues have almost tripled—a fact that Dr. Szabo has seen first-hand in his work as an emergency room physician.
According to Dr. Szabo, cannabis edibles may be behind this spike. With edibles, there is a delayed onset of symptoms until two to four hours after ingestion. In other words, there is a time window of around an hour after eating an edible when people may not be feeling much of the effects. This can lead them to take more in an attempt to feel more—and quickly take too much. By the time the symptoms become overwhelming, hours later, it will be too late to stop.
Accidental ingestion of cannabis is also a potential factor. It’s not always clear from the outside whether a baked good contains cannabis, which can lead to confusion when someone experiences symptoms without even realizing they’ve taken cannabis. This is especially a concern with children, whose reaction to cannabis tends to be much more serious than adults.
What can be done?
According to Dr. Szabo, this is not a cause for alarm. Rather, we need to improve public health messaging around edibles so that Canadians can make appropriate decisions around their cannabis use.
Even though edibles will technically not be legal until next year, Dr. Szabo says, there is already an increase in their availability and use among Canadians. This means that the information needs to be out there today—Canadians need to know about the delayed onset of symptoms with edibles, and how much cannabis is appropriate for them to consume at once.
Though a rise in first-time “novelty” cannabis users after legalization could spell more emergency room visits in the future, Dr. Szabo is hopeful that with proper public health messaging, we can mitigate the risk of cannabis overdose.
For more on this story, listen to the interview here.
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