Health & Medicine

First Death By Marijuana Reported, Experts Investigate

Alex Davis
First Posted: Sep 27, 2016 06:09 AM EDT

Marijuana as alternative medicine has been approved by many states. Knowing it has some positive effects especially for people who experiences chronic pain. But, the current study shows that one man has died because of marijuana. Therefore researchers investigate.

Marijuana related studies show that long heavy use of marijuana can damage the brain. Thus, report of one man with an age of 53 died because of marijuana. In the report, it shows that the man has depression and use cannabis to help ease his mental disorder, according to Daily Mail. 

Upon investigation, through brain analysis, the researchers found that he has been using marijuana heavily over two decades time and has a brain damage. He dies from injuries when he jumped out of the car after smoking pot and investigation shows that he lost touch with the reality.

Dr. Suzanne M. de la Monte co-author of the study, a professor of neurosurgery at Brown University in Rhode Island, said: "When we looked at the brain, it had horrible degenerative changes." She is also responsible for the investigation of the dead man's brain.

In line with this, after the accident, the man was admitted to the hospital and died a few days after. The blood test shows that high level of THC was found and the main psychoactive component is Marijuana. The experts also found that there are several damages in the man's brain region, which includes the nerve and brain fibers inside the brain.

Dr. Del Monte added that "The injuries in his brain that were most revealing were older than anything that could have occurred as a result of his accident." They did not know yet if how much marijuana intake did the man use over the period of time, but researchers know that he is a heavy user, as reported by Live Science. 

However, since it is reported that only one man experienced this by using heavy marijuana, experts cannot determine if other marijuana users can also experience this. Furthermore, more research should be conducted.

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