Smoking cannabis just once a month increases the risk of suffering a heart attack.
Smoking cannabis increases the risk of a heart attack
A study of 500,000 people found that marijuana users were more likely to suffer one before they turn 50, even though the average age is 65 for men and 72 for women.
Smoking weed causes inflammation of the blood vessels and leads to a thickening of the arteries, which puts the heart at risk. The experts found inflamed blood molecules rocketed just three hours after a person had smoked a joint.
Study author and biologist Mark Chandy, from Stanford University in California, said: "Marijuana has a significantly adverse effect on the cardiovascular system.
"Our studies of human cells and mice outline how exposure to THC - marijuana's psychoactive component - initiates a damaging molecular cascade in the blood vessels. It's not a benign drug."