Legal pot hasn't had much effect on Windsor emergency department, says ER doc

The annual City of Roses Emergency Medicine Conference brought the region's medical community together Thursday to talk about the everything from Lyme disease to ingesting laundry detergent pods.

And with almost a month after legalization, cannabis was also on the agenda.

Dr. Edward Sabga, an emergency physician at Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus, delivered a talk entitled "Reefer Madness - Legalized Cannabis: Recreational Complications in the ED."

It turns out legal pot isn't having much effect on his work so far.

"We wondered if there was going to be increased amounts of trauma or car accidents based on people driving impaired under cannabis — and so far, we haven't seen very much," he told Afternoon Drive host Chris dela Torre.

Sabga says the number of patients he treats with cannabis-related issues hasn't really increased from pre-legalization days.

"When they come into emerg for cannabis [issues], it's people that aren't prepared for the effect of cannabis — they don't know what to expect," he said. "Or they've taken too much, they've eaten a cookie or brownie, and two hours later when they think it didn't work, they eat another one."

One problem the physician hopes legal cannabis will solve is eliminating hyperemesis, a condition where individuals come in with constant vomiting related to cannabis use, something he says people who use medical-grade cannabis from licensed providers don't seem to exhibit.

"We're now theorizing that this problem is probably not related to cannabis, but the impurities that the street cannabis used to have — the pesticides and other mixtures that people used to put into [it]," he said.

"And now that we have organic, pure cannabis from the legal market, we're hoping and thinking that this hyperemesis problem is going to disappear."

Sabga said he's not really concerned about health-related issues stemming from legal marijuana, unless they're doing something important, such as working, driving or operating machinery.

"It's definitely safer than alcohol," he said. He works at the Ouellette Campus of Windsor Regional Hospital.

"People that drink too much alcohol are vomiting all night and getting into bar fights, irritating me in emerg — and people who smoke cannabis are home eating Doritos."