While marijuana has long been promoted as one of the more benign recreational drugs, evidence is mounting that this conception may be fallacious. A recent study from the University of Auckland in New Zealand has been presented in Honolulu at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2013 linking marijuana use to stroke in young people. The researchers involved in the study reviewed the urine samples of 160 ischemic stroke/TIA patients between the ages of 18 and 55 (average age: 45) and found that they were more than twice as likely to have smoked marijuana in the recent past as the control group subjects. Ischemic strokes occur when there is an obstruction in a blood vessel supplying oxygen to the brain, while TIAs (transient ischemic attacks), often called “mini strokes,” involve a … Read entire article »