Can Marijuana Kill You? Why Chelsea Clinton Was Wrong About Drug Statistics

The Drug Enforcement Administration has never reported a single overdose caused by marijuana use, but Chelsea Clinton was apparently unaware of that fact when she recently told an audience in Ohio that people have “died” after using marijuana during a speaking engagement. A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s daughter said the presidential candidate’s only child “misspoke” on the marijuana facts, according to The Washington Post.

The 36-year-old was asked about her mother’s support of marijuana reform in the United States while talking to students last Saturday at Youngstown State University in Ohio and expressed the older Clinton’s support of cannabis research and states experimenting with recreational and medical pot use. However, she followed up by alleging marijuana could potentially be deadly and claimed people in Colorado have died after using it.

“But we also have anecdotal evidence now from Colorado, where some of the people who were taking marijuana for those purposes, the coroner believes, after they died, there was drug interactions with other things they were taking,” she said.

Using the plant can increase risks of developing certain types of cancer, and marijuana smokers are more prone to bronchitis, emphysema and bronchial asthma, the DEA said. However, there is no evidence supporting Clinton's implication that weed can be deadly.

While overdosing doesn’t appear to be an issue for marijuana users, the altered state and high feeling associated with weed can lead to cataclysmic circumstances. Since Colorado legalized recreational use in 2012, cannabis has led to a significant increase in emergency room visits throughout the state. A 2015 study on the effects of legal marijuana’s impact on Colorado said that ER visits were up by 57% from 2011 to 2013. Traffic deaths, hospital visits, school suspensions, lab explosions and pet poisoning in correlation to pot's legalization had also increased exponentially.