A new study has revealed that smoking cannabis triples the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Scientists in France, who tracked more than 1,300 patients in intensive care, found people who took cannabis alone had almost twice the risk of suffering a cardiovascular event.

Experts today urged hospitals to screen all emergency room patients for recreational drug use. Scientists have previously suggested the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response, which raises heart rate and blood pressure.

Over time, this damages the heart and increases the risk of life-threatening problems like heart attacks. In the study, researchers tracked 1,392 patients who were admitted to 39 different intensive care units in France over a two-week period in April 2021. Among them, 11 percent (157) tested positive for recreational drug use, including 136 with cannabis.

The other 21 were found to have heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, or MDMA in their system. More than a quarter (28.7 per cent) tested positive for two or more of these drugs.

Over a follow-up of a year, the researchers discovered seven per cent (94) of patients experienced a serious cardiovascular event including death. Of the 713 patients in total hospitalised for acute coronary syndrome, 96 (14 per cent) had a positive recreational drug test and 50 (7 per cent) experienced serious cardiovascular events.