It’s a fact: The average psychoactive content in marijuana has nearly quadrupled from roughly 4% to about 16% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) since the 1990s, according to data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. In the 14 years since Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational cannabis, quaint concerns like “Did this guy just sell me a bag of oregano?” have been replaced by “Will one more of these gummies put me in the hospital?”
And this escalating potency is starting to pose real risks for habitual users. A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that hospital emergency room diagnoses of recurring nausea and uncontrollable vomiting linked to frequent marijuana use have leapt up 16% from October 2025 to May of this year.
The CDC scientists noted that, in part, this “abrupt, sustained increase” can be attributed to the fact that the condition, dubbed “cannabis hyperemesis syndrome,” has now been afforded its own diagnosis code under the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-CM code R11.16, thank you). Informally, the condition is known as “scromiting,” a portmanteau of screaming and vomiting. But, even without that official reporting mechanism, ER cases of this troubling condition had already doubled between 2017 and 2021, according to prior research, with an estimated 2.75 million people impacted by the ailment annually now in the U.S.
CDC health scientist Alana Vivolo-Kantor, the new study’s first author, noted that this new spike in ER cases revealed more prominence among patients between the ages of 15 and 24, as well as among teenage girls, young women, Black Americans, and Native Americans.
The overall increase among young people “was actually one of the surprising findings for us,” Vivolo-Kantor told the Associated Press. “Because the assumption going in was, ‘well, how can they have chronic use?’ […] How early were they using cannabis?”
High and Low
Medical researchers’ growing consensus on cannabis hyperemesis syndrome defines it as the sudden and painful arrival of severe nausea, cyclical bouts of vomiting, and intense abdominal pain, emerging within 24 hours of the patient’s last use of cannabis. One 2024 review of the recent medical literature on this syndrome, published in the journal Gastroenterology, warned that complications can involve acute kidney injury, electrolyte imbalances, and in rare cases a collapsed lung or even death.
The syndrome typically occurs in patients who have a history of heavy and dedicated cannabis use. But, alarmingly, the CDC’s new analysis found evidence that the condition’s symptoms may now “occur much sooner than was previously estimated, including within the first year of cannabis use,” according to Vivolo-Kantor and her coauthors.
Past assessments of cases in the U.S. and Canada, like that review in Gastroenterology, had tentatively noted that the affliction was mostly befalling young males between the ages of 16 and 34. But, lately, it’s looking a bit more like a gender-neutral crisis among young people.
Kid Cannabis
Vivolo-Kantor, an associate director for science in the CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention, suspects the rise in emergency room visits by young cannabis users might be the result of how newer, higher-potency strains and more concentrated THC products are now often used.
Although the authors cautioned that more data is needed, their report floated the possibility that vaping or “dabbing” (the inhalation of highly concentrated THC-based oils evaporated under high heat) might be playing a role here. Other factors, they noted, might include teens starting a cannabis habit earlier in their lives and the generally reduced public concern over this drug’s possible risks. (As with recent trends in nicotine vapes, it seems that easier electronic mechanisms and stronger THC concentrations are quietly making it easier for younger users, especially, to overdo it.)
The CDC report offered that new “educational materials and communications campaigns” might be needed to “raise awareness” about the risks of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome for young people, but stopped short of specifying whether such messaging may require a cartoon dog in a trenchcoat. This is probably not the best time to learn that the official “about” page for anti-drug PSA legend McGruff the Crime Dog® has been left with unfinished draft text for over a year. But his YouTube channel seems fine.
