In her own study published in April in the Journal of the American Heart Association, Jouanjus and her colleagues examined data on health complications following marijuana use gathered between 2006 and 2010 by the French Addictovigilance Network. We described the clinical characteristics of these cases and their evolution: 1.8% of all cannabis-related reports (35/1979) were cardiovascular complications, with patients being mostly men (85.7%) and of an average age of 34.3 years. [Marijuana: 5 Surprising Facts About Pot] 
 
 "The general public thinks marijuana is harmless, but information revealing the potential health dangers of marijuana use needs to be disseminated to the public, policymakers and health care providers," said study researcher Émilie Jouanjus, a medical faculty member at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse in France. In the United States, the American Heart Association aims to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20% by 2020.3 In Europe, the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) system was developed to provide a risk-scoring system for the management of cardiovascular risk in clinical practice.4 The frequency of cardiovascular diseases varies among countries related to geographic differences1,5 and according to the generally acknowledged risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, the knowledge of which cannot be disassociated from efficient understanding, prevention, and management of cardiovascular diseases. Among these risk factors are obesity (and also, weight changes and sedentary lifestyle), age, metabolic factors such as elevated cholesterol levels, and tobacco smoking.2,6–7 Another possible risk factor is cannabis smoking, which has recently been added to the list of the potential triggers for myocardial infarction.8 In addition, it was the substance, after tobacco and cocaine, most often identified as being involved in ischemic stroke associated with drugs with abuse potential.9 Yet, cannabis is the world's most widely used illicit substance.10 It benefits from an image of safety for health, and its use has become trivialized. The French Addictovigilance Network was requested to search cases of cannabis-related cardiovascular complications during the past 5 years (2006 to 2010), to cover the time when several outstanding cases of cannabis-related cardiovascular disorders had been reported to the network as well as the few preceding years. The percentage of cannabis-related cardiovascular complications increased from 1.1% in 2006 to 3.6% in 2010 of all cannabis-related reports. Number of Spontaneous Reports to the French Addictovigilance Network: Cannabis-Related Reports and Cardiovascular Cannabis-Related Reports From 2006 to 2010 Characteristics of Subjects With Cardiovascular Complications Patients were mostly men (30/35) (Table 2), and the mean age was 34.3 years old (SD 8.8 years). (Acute coronary syndrome is a term used to describe symptoms related to the obstruction of the coronary arteries, which feed the heart muscle itself, which may occur as a result of a heart attack.) In comparison to the most recently assessed number of regular cannabis users in France (1.2 million), only a small proportion of complications was reported to the French addictovigilance system.
– Where there's smoke, there's usually fire—and when it comes to marijuana smoke, scientists are once again fanning the embers of a long-suspected theory that the drug is linked to cardiovascular issues. According to a case study published last month in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, a 21-year-old man who was a regular pot user suffered a heart attack—and doctors identified cannabis "as the most significant precipitant of his acute coronary syndrome," LiveScience reports. It's not the first time marijuana has been tied to heart problems. Reportedly, the first documented link between the two was shown in 2000, when a Boston study indicated that a middle-aged person's risk of having a heart attack rose five times in the first hour after lighting up, the New York Times reported that year. And earlier this year, a French study cited by LiveScience noted that of 2,000 reported marijuana complications, 2% of them were heart issues (including nine people who died). But a cause-and-effect relationship has yet to be established: Even in the recent case study, researchers admit the man's high cholesterol and cigarette smoking may have also played a role in causing his heart attack. But a cardiologist at NYU's Langone Medical Center tells LiveScience that "the case report adds to the growing body of evidence about the potential deleterious effects of marijuana use on the heart." (Pot was recently implicated in the deaths of two young men who died of complications from heart arrhythmias.)