Scromiting: a nasty but rare side effect of marijuana use

Sounds like something on a Cards Against Humanity card.

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Keep in mind that because of the moral panic surrounding marijuana, it’s been poorly researched, and that intensive modern human cultivation has created much more potent and varied strains than were available even a decade ago, let alone centuries. Still, I hope you’re right, as edibles are my only route of consuming this particular medicine.

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This has been well known in Colorado ERs for several years. At one point we were stocking capsaicin cream in our ER. Pretty much every patient that we see for vomiting multiple times in a week or two has this. There does not seem to be a demographic beyond that most heavy users are under the age of 60. Most, not all Lately we are using haloperidol for some folk on whom other anti-emetics fail. This syndrome is something we sometimes see mutliple times per day. while there are a LOT of users in CO, even a small percentage of those getting the vomits makes for a lot of patients statewide. And as pointed out above, convincing them that it is their marijuana can be difficult - many times people have told me to go fuck myself because they believe that I am on some anti-MJ crusade when I tell them why they are vomiting.

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capsaicin cream is a thing?

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Just don’t touch your eyes afterward (or other parts, too, unless that’s your thing). Ow.

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So how rare/common is this?

If real, seems very rare. My only data point is my daughter may have had this. Very intense vomiting. Seems to have gone away after a doctor-recommended 3 month break. Confounding: she’s had a sensitive tummy since her teens.

I guess my other data point would be that my wife & I are both long time, on again/off again tokers. I’m a lightweight compared to many others. Neither of us have experienced anything like this, nor know of anyone mentioning this.

Now that I think of it, I when I hurl I might be scromiting. Jaw-stretching technicolor yawn. No screaming, just a lot of moaning and groaning. Seems never ending, until I’m sure I’m upchucking my colon. I’ve never understood what those airline barf bags are for. I’m sure I’d need a good size kitchen catcher bag. Luckily never been air sick.

At least it’s legal here. Cannabis, that is. Scromitting too. Will be good to see this studied.

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Isn’t this just a whitey? Everyone’s gone a little too hard and barfed on their shoes at least once, surely?

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This is not something you get from occasionally overindulging, nor with occasional use. There is precious little research reported on this phenomenon, but the fact that multiple medical professionals here have reported multiple experiences dealing with it suggests “rare” is probably not accurate, at least among heavy users. This is a withdrawal phenomenon. I mentioned tachyphylaxis above, and i suspect that may well have a role in this. THC has an antiemetic effect, as has been shown in it’s use in chemo-induced vomiting. Thing is, the body doesn’t like being messed with like that, and if you block a certain receptor, it tends to increase the number of that receptor. If you then remove the blockade, all those extra receptors now start firing away and the results can be unpredictable and very unpleasant, or even dangerous. The availability of very high potency THC preparations would make this more likely, as well. Some of my kids report using “wax” (a new one on me, honestly) that could be upwards of 85-90% THC. Many times stonger than the weed i was familiar with in my youth. And yes, counter-irritants like capsaicin cream or hot showers help, but the only fix is to either stay stoned or stop using and ride out the storm. It’s a real thing, and it sucks.

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When I grew up the advice was to drink a cold glass of orange juice if you were feeling adverse effects from being too high. The sugar spike and acidity from all the vitamin C does seem to have a palpable effect.

Well, sure, if you’re a Rockefeller

Weird timing. I’ve been smoking for many years, and just last week I got intense stomach pain (similar in intensity to when my appendix bust) for no reason at all as far as I can tell. My doctor’s put me on proton-pump inhibitors because he assumes it’s some kind of inflammation that will get better on it’s own, and so far that seem to be working.
I do remember wondering if it was due to how much I’d smoked, but I thought I’d smoked a bit less than normal so I ruled it out. Possibly that might have been the cause. Only one way to find out I guess.
The only other problem is last time I tried to stop, I got worryingly depressed quite quickly, which scared me tbh.
(PS, no vomiting for me, that only used to happen when I mixed it with too much booze)

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I feel like I’m always going on about this, but you might want to google detailed descriptions of gallstones, and if it sounds familiar then physically force your doctor to refer you for an ultrasound. Based on my apparently-common experience, GPs are prone to diagnose that as a tummy ache, because when you explain the key difference (that it’s much, much more painful), they just hear Charlie Brown teacher noises. I could have avoided several horrible episodes over a couple of years if I’d refused to be fobbed off with omeprazole.

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Shit. Mind you, at that level of use and potency, anything is possible. It’d have been nice if we could have researched all this stuff over the last hundred years or so, wouldn’t it?

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