Death

Two cases of sudden death are reported in patients whose self-determined seizure management primarily relied on artisanal cannabis therapies. Risks of morbidity, mortality and SUDEP in SDTC users need to be further studied. Providers should be aware of the absence of morbidity and mortality data for SDTC in patients with epilepsy may only be due to a failure of reporting.

The five most frequently occurring drugs found in decedents were ethyl alcohol (5,318), benzodiazepines (5,167, including 1,851 alprazolam occurrences), cocaine (2,882), cannabinoids (2,292), and morphine (2,040).

A 17-year-old boy beat a 14-year-old to death in Virginia last month after he asked the younger teen to smoke marijuana with him and the younger boy told an adult, law enforcement sources told News4.

Swedish researchers analyzed the records of more than 45,000 men beginning in 1969 and 1970. The scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm reported that 4,000 died during the 42-year follow-up period, and men who'd used marijuana heavily at ages 18 and 19 were 40 percent more likely to die by age 60 compared to guys who hadn't used the drug.

Over the next few hours, the man showed erratic speech and hostile behaviors, the report said. About 2.5 hours after he ate the whole cookie, he jumped off a balcony on the fourth floor of his building, and died from trauma from the fall, the report said.

Another death in Colorado has been listed as having “marijuana intoxication” as a factor, according to a CBS4 investigation, and several other families are now saying they believed the deaths of their loved ones can be traced to recreational marijuana use.

 Russell admitted he had smoked marijuana at lunch and again as he drove to pick up his children in Brodhead, the criminal complaint indicates.“All I did was smoke a bowl of marijuana. It's not like I am high,” Russell is quoted as saying in the criminal complaint.“The defendant did not seem to understand that smoking marijuana and driving were illegal,” the complaint states

The autopsy showed Foster had a .098 milligrams-per-liter level of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the intoxicating ingredient of marijuana. Pearson said that is a significant level.
“That indicates very recent use,” she said. “I would say she used marijuana within a half-hour or an hour before she died.”

State legislators said they were concerned by testimony from Children’s Hospital Dr. Michael DiStefano, who said that seven children had been treated since January for symptoms related to marijuana intake. Between 2005 and 2013, that number was six.

They discovered that the deaths of two of the patients could not be put down to anything other than marijuana use.

Both of these people were men who had died after their hearts started beating either too fast or too slowly.

The researchers believe that this change in heart rhythm – called arrhythmia - was caused by cannabis.

The reason they came to this conclusion was that both had smoked the drug within a few hours of their death and neither had any history of heart problems.

• Florida should not legalize marijuana because it is a gateway drug that is addictive and damaging to the teenage brain. Moreover, without FDA regulation there is no way to monitor the drug’s potency.
• He then fell into the habit of taking pills in order to maintain the buzz he got from pot.
• It is out of love for our children, for those like my son, that we must say no (to legalizing marijuana).