Whether Black people decide to smoke marijuana, vape it, dab it or consume it via edibles, experts say any of these uses could be harmful. Approximately three in 10 people who use cannabis have cannabis-use disorder, and the risk of developing cannabis-use disorder is even greater for people who begin to use it before age 18, according to the CDC.
Marijuana use is linked to increased risk of heart attacks, stroke and dying from heart-related causes, according to research published in the journal Heart on June 10.
Researchers analyzed data from previous studies published from 2016-2023 involving nearly 200 million people, mostly between the ages of 19-59.
They found that people who used marijuana had more than double the risk of dying from heart-related causes than people who did not use marijuana. Marijuana users also had a 29% higher risk of acute coronary syndrome (reduced blood flow to the heart) and a 20% higher risk of stroke.
“What was particularly striking was that the concerned patients hospitalized for these disorders were young (and thus, not likely to have their clinical features due to tobacco smoking) and with no history of cardiovascular disorder or cardiovascular risk factors,” senior author Émilie Jouanjus, a pharmacologist at the University of Toulouse in France, said in an email to CNN.
Heart disease is already one of the leading causes of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and more Black people die from heart disease than any other racial or ethnic group.
Black adults also have a higher risk of stroke than White adults and are more likely to die from stroke. Whether Black people decide to smoke marijuana, vape it, dab it or consume it via edibles, experts say any of these uses could be harmful.
A companion article to the study also discussed the rapidly changing patterns in cannabis use, including the increase in product potency over time. Article writers noted that the cannabis flower has a much higher tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content than in the past. And as potency increases, daily cannabis use in the U.S. is also increasing, especially among young adults aged 19-30.
Black teenagers, in particular, have been using marijuana increasingly over time, according to a 2017 study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. There used to be a racial gap in marijuana use amongst teenagers, with White teens using at a higher rate, the study said.
But in recent years, researchers found that among 10th graders, Black students significantly increased marijuana use over time while White students did not. Among 12th graders, all non-White groups, including Black, Hispanic and multiracial, showed increases of marijuana use.
In a 2016 interview on The Breakfast Club, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, described marijuana as a gateway to harder drugs and said it is laced with dangerous chemicals.
In a different interview on Freedom FM 106.5, based in Saint Kitts and Nevis, conducted on April 13, 2018, Minister Farrakhan recognized the good of medical marijuana, but issued a warning to Black people.
“The CIA has weaponized marijuana,” he said. “So now you have scientists dealing with the marijuana and then flooding our community with marijuana; then we are smoking and using it in a way that makes us very, very ill and prone to abnormal behavior.”
Other studies have linked higher-potency marijuana to addiction. Approximately three in 10 people who use cannabis have cannabis-use disorder, and the risk of developing cannabis-use disorder is even greater for people who begin to use it before age 18, according to the CDC.
The CDC also says that cannabis use directly affects parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, decision-making, coordination, emotion and reaction time; and infants, children and teens who still have developing brains are especially susceptible to marijuana’s adverse effects.
In a message titled, “The Ultimate Challenge: The Survival of the Black Nation,” delivered on Nov. 19, 1978, at the National Conference of Black Lawyers in Chicago, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned Black people against the harmful substances frequently consumed.
“Don’t tell me you want to survive and you are smoking a cigarette. If you don’t have the will to stop smoking a cigarette that contains 19 deadly poisons, stifling your lungs, poisoning your bloodstream, interfering with your ability to think and see clearly.
Then let’s not talk about the greater problem, because we have already failed the test on the simple problem,” he said. “How can we talk about survival and engage in that which kills self?”
“Some of you will go and light up your marijuana or get a little cocaine. How can we talk about the survival of the Black man yet engage in the Black man’s extinction?” he further questioned. “If we want to survive, we must stop doing the things that contribute to our destruction.”