>relief.....end is near
>
>"Just like anything, the dose makes the poison.”
>
>https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/loved-weed-then-vomiting-began-184850933.html
>
>U.S.
>He loved weed. Then the vomiting began. Months later, he died
>USA TODAY
>USA TODAYSeptember 20, 2019, 4:00 PM EDT
> 0:55 1:25
> NYC climate march joins global call for action
>The doctors told Regina Denney and her son Brian Smith Jr.
>what was causing his severe vomiting and abdominal pain.
>
>Neither the teenager nor his mother believed what they said:
>smoking weed.
>
>Smoking marijuana, the two knew, was recommended to cancer
>patients to spur the appetite. How could it lead to Brian's
>condition?
>
>As the months went by and the pounds slipped off Brian’s
>once healthy frame, it was clear that whatever was causing his
>stomach troubles had just the opposite effect.
>
>Brian kept smoking. The symptoms continued on and off.
>
>Last October, after another severe bout of vomiting, the
>teenager died. He was 17 years old.
>
>Five months later, as Denney pored over a coroner’s report
>for answers, she finally accepted that marijuana played a
>pivotal role in her son’s death. The autopsy report, which
>Denney received in March, attributed her son's death to
>dehydration due to cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.
>
>"We had never heard about this, had never heard about
>marijuana causing any vomiting. He and I were like, 'Yeah, I
>think it’s something else,' ” Denney said. “Brian did
>not believe that was what it was because of everything we had
>ever been told about marijuana. … It didn’t make any
>sense.”
>
>Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, also known as CHS, can arise
>in response to long-term cannabis use. The syndrome consists
>of vomiting, nausea and abdominal pain, which can often be
>alleviated by taking hot showers.
>
>Doctors say CHS is on the rise, but they are not certain why.
>Marijuana is more available than in years past, and it is more
>potent.
>
>Rarely does CHS result in death.
>
>'Basically, they smoked weed'
>
>Denney didn’t like the fact that her teen son started
>smoking at 13, but she figured the situation could be worse.
>Brian and she had a strong relationship, and he always had
>been honest with her about his use of marijuana.
>
>For the most part, Brian was a good kid who had a tightknit
>group of friends who called themselves the GBS, Gimber Block
>Savages, after the south side street where many of them lived.
>Although they called themselves a gang, Denney said, they
>never caused any trouble.
>
>“Basically, they smoked weed,” she said.
>
>About two years after Brian started smoking, he began using a
>lot more, perhaps to help deal with depression, Denney said.
>He dropped out of school after ninth grade and started working
>full-time with an uncle who had a tree-trimming business.
>Brian helped clear brush.
>
>The job provided enough money to support his marijuana habit,
>another reason Denney felt there was no reason for her to
>intervene. After all, many of Brian’s peers were using
>heroin or methamphetamine.
>
>“I thought, 'OK, if that’s all he’s doing, smoking
>marijuana, pick and choose your battles,' ” she said. “If
>this is the worst thing he’s doing, I’m OK. He’s not in
>any trouble legally. He’s not playing with guns, robbing
>people and stealing things. He’s supporting his own habit. I
>thought, 'OK, this is what it is.' ”
>
>Denney had no reason to be concerned about cannabinoid
>hyperemesis syndrome. She, like many others, had never heard
>of it.
>
>'A totally underdiagnosed entity'
>
>A few years ago, many doctors had no idea this condition
>existed. First described 15 years ago, CHS symptoms follow
>heavy cannabis use and include intense stomach pain, bouts of
>vomiting and debilitating nausea.
>
>A study published last year in the journal Basic & Clinical
>Pharmacology & Toxicology surveyed urban emergency room
>patients who smoked marijuana 20 or more days a month. Of the
>155 who said yes, almost a third experienced CHS symptoms.
>
>“A lot of papers prior to mine would say it’s very
>rare,” said Joseph Habboushe, one of the study’s authors
>and a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine at
>NYU Langone Health in New York City, who saw his first case
>five or six years ago. “Emergency room doctors on the
>front-line lines, we know that it’s a totally underdiagnosed
>entity.”
>
>On the other side of the country, Dr. Jeff Lapoint and his
>colleagues saw an influx of patients with CHS symptoms about
>six years ago. Lapoint is the director of the division of
>medical toxicology at Kaiser Permanente Southern California
>and practices in San Diego, which he said is home to both
>craft beer and craft marijuana.
>
>Many of Lapoint's patients returned time after time when the
>next bout hit, seeking relief from their stomach woes.
>
>“We would see lots of it. We would see an alarming amount of
>it,” Lapoint said. “People were coming in all the time,
>and physicians didn’t know what to do with them.”
>
>Op-ed: Vaping deaths and booming black market: Pot experiment
>will fail without better oversight
>
>Lapoint said he and his colleagues have seen fewer such cases
>lately.
>
>Habboushe concluded in his study that as many as 2.75 million
>regular cannabis users may suffer from symptoms of CHS, though
>many of them may be mild. Mild symptoms can serve as a warning
>to discontinue cannabis use to avoid more severe distress down
>the line, Habboushe said.
>
>A study this year in the Journal of Forensic Science described
>two people in Canada who died from CHS and a third for whom
>the condition contributed to death.
>
>'It makes no sense'
>
>Brian was Denney’s baby, her boy after two girls. From the
>time he was a child, he suffered from acid reflux and often
>took medicine to ease the symptoms.
>
>Brian, who loved sports and the movie “Twilight,” was
>close to his family and called himself his mother’s
>“snuggle bunny.” He was beloved uncle BubBub to his
>toddler nephew, Zayden. He was a loyal friend, once giving up
>his bed so a buddy who was homeless had a place to sleep. As a
>teen, he split time between Denney’s home and that of his
>father.
>
>In April 2018, Brian felt ill. At first everyone, including
>his pediatrician, thought his acid reflux was acting up. He
>lost 40 pounds and frequently complained of nausea that led
>him to avoid food.
>
>A few days into the illness, he called his mother and told her
>he couldn’t stop vomiting. Denney drove to his father’s
>house to take him to the hospital. On the way to Franciscan
>St. Francis Health, Denney had to stop multiple times for
>Brian to vomit.
>
>The 1st tied to a weed shop: Another death is linked to
>vaping. This time, it's in Oregon
>
>Brian complained of tingling in his face. When they got to the
>hospital, half his face was numb, the muscles in his hands and
>legs constricted and froze, and he projectile vomited.
>
>Denney assumed he was having a stroke.
>
>Within a few minutes, he was hooked up to oxygen and a heart
>monitor. Medical staff placed IVs in each arm. Tests revealed
>his kidneys were failing, and many of his other lab values
>were abnormal. No one could tell what was behind the attack,
>though they knew the frequent vomiting left him dehydrated.
>
>Another emergency room doctor poked her head in the door and
>asked two questions: Do you smoke marijuana often? Do you take
>frequent hot showers?
>
>Yes, Brian said. Yes.
>
>You have CHS, the doctor said.
>
>The following day, Brian was discharged with an appointment to
>follow up with a gastroenterologist in July.
>
>Although neither Denney nor Brian accepted the diagnosis
>completely, she urged him to consider not smoking as a process
>of elimination. He agreed, but he struggled with nausea and
>was too sick to work.
>
>The GI doctor took a tube of blood, did no further testing and
>confirmed the earlier diagnosis: CHS.
>
>Denney remained unconvinced, thinking the specialist was too
>quick to accept the emergency room doctor’s diagnosis
>without doing any confirmatory testing.
>
>“Going to the GI doctor, I thought we’re going to finally
>get an answer. We’re going to finally know what we need to
>do to make him better,” she said. “Then when they didn’t
>run any other tests, it was like, 'OK, so why are we not doing
>them?' It makes no sense.”
>
>After that visit, Brian returned to his dad – and started
>smoking again.
>
>He told Denney he had symptoms the whole time he wasn’t
>smoking, so what was the point of quitting?
>
>'The dose makes the poison'
>
>Experts aren’t 100% sure what’s behind the relatively
>sudden advent of this condition. They suspect that more potent
>cannabis may be to blame, along with several states’
>decision to legalize the drug for medicinal purposes or
>altogether.
>
>In the 1970s, THC concentration in most marijuana would be
>about 7%, Lapoint said. The mean concentration has risen to
>15% to 30%, and it’s possible to make extracts with 99%
>THC.
>
>“Marijuana was the joke of the toxicology world when it was
>7%,” Lapoint said. “People never got sick. … But now if
>you make the concentration 99%, it’s just like if a
>17-year-old kid goes to a frat party and has a beer. That’s
>a lot different than drinking shots of Everclear 151. Just
>like anything, the dose makes the poison.”
>
>Vaping lung illness:: What we know about the recent spate of
>cases and deaths
>
>The best treatment for CHS is to stop using cannabis entirely,
>Habboushe said.
>
>Once a person develops the condition, he or she has probably
>done something permanent. Further exposure to cannabis highly
>increases risk of recurrence. Persuading patients to accept
>this can be difficult, Habboushe said.
>
>“There’s a lot of denial,” he said. “A lot of patients
>are really heavy marijuana smokers, and they really don’t
>want to believe that it’s related to cannabis and hard for
>them to believe because they have been using cannabis
>forever.”
>
>'Don't give up'
>
>In July Brian moved back in with Denney. She knew he was not
>going to give up smoking, but she thought being around his
>nephew would encourage him to smoke less.
>
>A few months passed. Brian did not put back the weight, but he
>seemed to be a bit better.
>
>Then came Oct. 7. Brian started feeling ill again. Denney and
>her daughters had concert tickets, so she went to buy him
>Gatorade and popsicles to stem the nausea and asked his father
>to come and stay with him.
>
>When they returned from the concert, he started vomiting
>nonstop. They rushed to the St. Francis emergency room, where
>doctors transferred him to Riley Hospital for Children. Once
>more, Brian was rehydrated.
>
>Denney said her son cut back on smoking, but a few weeks
>later, he went to visit his cousins. “I know they smoked,”
>Denney said. “That’s just what he did.”
>
>When she picked him up Oct. 21, he felt a little nauseated but
>had not been vomiting.
>
>Three days later, Denney woke up around 5 a.m. to find her son
>sitting in the living room and clutching his stomach.
>
>He told her it was his acid reflux but he was fine. Then he
>started vomiting again.
>
>“He was throwing up so much,” Denney said. “I was taking
>the bucket in there and holding it for him because he didn’t
>have the energy to hold it.”
>
>For the first time, Brian told her he was going to quit
>smoking.
>
>He grabbed his lower back, saying it hurt bad.
>
>Remembering his kidneys had suffered in his previous attacks,
>Denney called 911.
>
>Before the paramedics arrived, she found her son lying on his
>side.
>
>She rolled him over. He was not breathing.
>
>Denney screamed. She started doing chest compressions. Her
>daughter’s boyfriend ran across the street to get their
>neighbor, a Navy veteran.
>
>“I kept telling him, 'Fight, B, fight. I need you. Don’t
>give up.' I begged God to take me instead," Denney said.
>
>The paramedics arrived and worked on Brian for about 45
>minutes to no avail. On Oct. 24, Brian died.
>
>Because he died at home, detectives had to investigate, and
>the coroner prepared a report. It took five months for Denney
>to receive a copy. It arrived on her birthday in early March.
>
>Soon after Brian’s death, Denney found edibles in his
>backpack.
>
>She asked herself again and again what she should have done.
>Should she have forced him to go to rehab?
>
>Denney devoted herself to helping raise awareness about CHS.
>She started a Facebook group in Brian’s name. She talks
>about Brian and CHS every chance she gets. She keeps Brian
>close to her, wherever she is.
>
>Photos of her son hang on the walls in her bedroom. On her
>dresser sits a dark urn emblazoned with a gold marijuana leaf
>that contain's Brian's ashes. His sister chose it. She knew
>her brother would have liked it.
>
>Follow Shari Rudavsky on Twitter: @srudavsky
>
>This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana
>boy, 17, died from smoking weed. CHS is to blame. What is
>CHS?