A new study published in JAMA Neurology found an increased chance of dementia among people who required an emergency room visit or hospitalization due to marijuana use, CNN reports.

The study examined the association between hospital-based care due to cannabis use and future dementia diagnoses using data from over 6 million Canadian adults aged 45 and older.

Per CNN, study coauthor Dr. Daniel Myran, an assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Ottawa in Canada, stated that “someone who has an emergency room visit or hospitalization due to cannabis has a 23% increased risk of dementia within five years compared to someone who was at the hospital for another reason. They have a 72% greater risk compared to the general population.”

Among the patients who required an emergency room visit or hospitalization for cannabis, five percent of them were diagnosed with dementia within five years, and 19 percent were diagnosed within 10 years, Myran added.

“Those numbers have already factored out other reasons for dementia, such as age, sex, mental health or substance use, and whether or not you have chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease,” Myran said.

While the study does not confirm that marijuana use directly causes dementia, the study’s abstract concludes that “these findings have important implications considering increasing cannabis use among older adults.”