Chronic cannabis use refers to regular use over months or years, and is often defined as daily or near-daily use, according to health experts.
While having the munchies is a regular side effect of smoking weed, hospital visits for cannabis users with stomach-churning attacks have surged, experts have said.
Emergency departments have treated patients with abdominal pain and severe or prolonged vomiting, with their common trait being they are chronic cannabis users.
The condition is known as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a disorder that triggers unpleasant symptoms such as nausea. UW Medicine explains how the gut condition usually occurs within 24 hours of the most recent use and can last for days.
Furthermore, chronic cannabis users can experience the symptoms three to four times per year.
The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases has since listed the condition on their website, which should allow experts to carefully monitor cases and see how regular cannabis use can impact the human body.
Beatriz Carlini, a research associate professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said: “It helps us count and monitor these cases. In studying addiction and other public health concerns, we have three sources of data: what clinicians tell us, what people in the communities tell us, and what health records tell us.
“A new code for cannabis hyperemesis syndrome will supply important hard evidence on cannabis-adverse events, which physicians tell us is a growing problem.”
While the condition may now be recognised by the WHO, many doctors are unfamiliar with the syndrome, meaning an incorrect diagnosis, such as food poisoning or the stomach flu, is possible.
Carlini continued: “A person often will have multiple [emergency department] visits until it is correctly recognized, costing thousands of dollars each time.”
Research into the syndrome will continue, as scientists work out at what point cannabis users become vulnerable to the condition.
Emergency medicine specialist, Dr. Chris Buresh, said: “Some people say they’ve used cannabis without a problem for decades. Or they smoke pot because they think it treats their nausea.
“It seems like there’s a threshold when people can become vulnerable to this condition, and that threshold is different for everyone. Even using in small amounts can make these people start throwing up.”