Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome

[painterdan]

truly a bs story,unfortunately there are still gullible people that believe this crap.

[Restorium2]

No doubt some people get sick from cannabis. There are so many different individuals on the planet the possibilities are endless. How many people get sick from milk? How many get sick from peanuts? 

I think the error in thinking with this is that some folks are assuming no one will ever get sick from cannabis. It just needs to be put in perspective. 

[Restorium2]

The sick dude; “Now all kinds of ambition has come back. I desire so much more in life and, at 37 years old, it’s a little late to do it, but better now than never,”

 

Well yes, you were sick and now you feel better. Sick people don't have much of a life. Kind of ironic that cannabis helps a lot of people get a life that are sick from other things ...

[Scarlet_Begonias]

Yahoo just had this bs on the front page today. :-p

[Restorium2]

Maybe he just needed some lemons?

 

http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/49841-has-weed-gotten-more-potent-1885-newspaper-says-no/#entry572392

[Greg Rx]

I figured I should post serious,...

 

This very well MAY be real.  I mean, who knows. Weird things make people sick.

 

BUT, what concerns me is every time someone goes to the doctor vomiting now, they ask you if you use marijuana, and if you say "yes", they just blow your sickness off as "Cannabinoid Hyperemesis" when it is most likely something else.  This must be very very rare.  1:100,000 maybe? Less?

 

I dunno.  These type of things always make me go "hmmmm.....".

 

Sounds fishy.

Please trust me that there are hundreds of weird reactions not reported by the drug companies. I have talked to a few pain patients that claim to be allergic to cannabis. I have had patients claim to be allergic to Benadryl or prednisone, both would be used to treat allergic reactions. Always makes me scratch my head.

[bax]

now here is an interesting as heck article.

 

where some hack dr learns of CHS existing and blames that instead of ACTUALLY TESTING THE MARIJUANA FOR TOXIC PESTICIDES

 

this is why CHS is such moo poo. any number of things cause nausea, and now drs have an easy out instead of doing real doctoring.

 

dont fall for this CHS meme. it does not exist.

 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/medical-marijuana-cannabis-health-canada-random-testing-1.3971601

 

Health Canada has announced it will begin random testing of medical marijuana products to check for the presence of banned pesticides after product recalls affecting nearly 25,000 customers led to reports of illnesses and the possibility of a class action lawsuit.

 

Late last year, licensed medical marijuana producers Organigram of Moncton, N.B. and Toronto-based Mettrum voluntarily recalled products due to the presence of low levels of the prohibited chemicals myclobutanil, bifenazate and pyrethrins.

 

 

In addition, as of Jan. 31, the department said it had received three adverse reaction reports from Organigram's nearly 3,900 hundred medical marijuana customers affected by the recall. Reported symptoms include "weight loss; nausea; vomiting; throat irritation; and respiratory tract infection," according to an email from a Health Canada spokesperson.

 

In October, Downton went to see a gastroenterologist. She'd been sick to her stomach for eight months, and during that time she'd been smoking and eating medical marijuana.

 

The medical specialist diagnosed her as having an atypical case of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and told her to stop consuming marijuana. The doctor had never seen this type of illness in someone who wasn't a longtime pot user.

 

Downton had become so sick, she'd lost 30 pounds, and was bed-ridden.

 

"I never want to be that sick again," she said.

 

The diagnosis of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome was made before the recall. It wasn't publicly known at that point that the marijuana, believed to be organically grown, contained trace amounts of myclobutanil and bifenazate.

 

Myclobutanil is a fungicide permitted on food crops. But when burned, it produces hydrogen cyanide.

 

According to Health Canada, hydrogen cyanide interferes with how oxygen is used in the body and may cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Larger concentrations may cause gasping, irregular heartbeats, seizures, fainting, and even death.

 

Now, Downton suspects it was the joints she smoked — tainted with myclobutanil — that caused her eight-month illness.

 

Since she stopped using the marijuana, she said she's no longer suffering from the constant nausea and vomiting.

[bax]

oh followup on the above health canada moo poo.

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/doctor-says-canada-is-playing-down-pesticide-tainted-pot-risks/article33991359/

 

OrganiGram sent a letter to clients informing them “the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote,” while Health Canada has referred to the amounts of banned pesticide detected as “trace amounts” that are “low risk.”

 

Dr. Porter questions how they could come to that conclusion so easily.

 

“They have no idea whether or not that’s true. There is no data I am aware of that would give those assurances,” he said in an interview.

 

Dr. Porter raised alarms about myclobutanil and other chemicals last year at a high-level drug policy conference in New York, where he spoke about the impacts that even minuscule amounts of dangerous chemicals can have on the body. Health Canada sent several representatives to that conference.

 

He said that even though the amount of chemical involved in the recalls can be classified as small, it does not mean that the risks can be dismissed.

 

“Ultra-low doses can have all kinds of biological effects, especially over longer periods of exposure,” he said. “So when these companies say ‘Oh, there’s no problem,’ the first thing I would ask them is have you looked at the effects on the nervous system, the endocrine system, the immune system, and epigenetics?”

 

Recordings of phone messages to Mettrum clients, which were obtained by The Globe and Mail, give the impression of safety, saying that myclobutanil “is widely used in Canada and around the world on food crops, including lettuce, fresh fruit and berries.”

 

However, although myclobutanil is approved for use on some foods to control mildew, it is designed to be washed off, while any remaining residue is metabolized by the digestive system so that it is not a threat to the body. The reason it is banned for plants that are smoked, including tobacco, is that the chemical enters the bloodstream directly through the lungs, without being metabolized.

 

Symptoms of low-level hydrogen cyanide poisoning include dizziness, trouble breathing and vomiting. However, Dr. Porter said the long-term effects of myclobutanil on the body are not known, because they have not been studied.

 

“The bottom line is, nobody really knows,” he said.

 

Both Mettrum and OrganiGram told The Globe that their communications with clients were approved by Health Canada. In a background briefing with The Globe this week, a senior government official said Health Canada determined the recalled product presented a low risk by calculating the amount of the chemical a person would have been exposed to if he or she had smoked the product. Although the presence of the banned pesticide was unacceptable, the senior official said: “In this particular case, the risks are low.”

 

However, Dr. Porter figures it is impossible to know that. “These people don’t know their biochemical pathways, and they especially don’t know low-dose effects.”

 

U.S. jurisdictions that have legalized cannabis have also been confronted with myclobutanil problems in recent years, since the substance – sold as Nova 40 and Eagle 20 – is an easy shortcut when faced with mildew infestations, particularly when the pest threatens crops worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

Andrew Freedman, who oversaw Colorado’s fight against the illegal use of myclobutanil when he was director of marijuana co-ordination for the state, said the government took a zero-tolerance approach, because there were no studies saying it could be safely used on cannabis.

 

“Is there a tolerance level for it? No, there is no tolerance level,” said Mr. Freedman, who is now a consultant on cannabis policy at Freedman & Koski, a firm he co-founded this year. “It’s banned outright.”

 

In Mettrum’s communications to clients, the company referred to myclobutanil as “not currently approved for use on cannabis,” suggesting that it may eventually be permitted.

 

However, in a statement issued this month in the United States, the maker of Nova 40 and Eagle 20, Dow AgroSciences, indicated otherwise.

 

“Dow AgroSciences, without exception, will not seek regulatory approvals or support the use of its products on marijuana,” the company told CBS News. “[Myclobutanil] is not approved for use, nor should it be used under any circumstances on marijuana.”

 

Since the myclobutanil problem in Canada first came to light in December, Mettrum has since been purchased by Canopy Growth Corp., in a $430-million deal that closed Dec. 31. All Mettrum questions have now been referred to Canopy.

 

Canopy chief executive officer Bruce Linton said the company plans to fix the problems at Mettrum, and said the wording chosen in that communication to customers was unintentional.

 

“In no way did we intend to imply that the pesticide found in [Mettrum’s] product could potentially become approved for use,” Mr. Linton said in an e-mail to The Globe. Mettrum’s CEO, Michael Haines, is no longer with the company and has not responded to questions about the recalls.