(WSET) — According to a new study by the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, adults are increasingly being admitted to the hospital for cannabis abuse, dependence, and poisoning.

From 2020 to 2024, you can see the numbers have increased, with 2022 seeing the highest amount at over 37 thousand.

According to VHHA, across that period, Virginia hospital emergency departments recorded 172,778 adult patient visits for cannabis abuse, dependence, or poisoning diagnoses. The state saw more than 31,000 such emergency department visits each year during the five-year span, peaking at 37,690 in 2022.

Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome or CHS cases also increased nearly 29% during that time period.

Over that five-year period, there were 24,960 total visits associated with the condition, with annual visits rising from 4,027 in 2020 to 5,175 in 2024.

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This condition can cause recurring episodes of severe nausea, abdominal pain, and vomiting among certain individuals who are long-time cannabis users.

Julian Walker, the vice president of communications for VHHA, said these types of cases are serious.

“Those symptoms are not going away, they are not subsiding, and efforts to relieve those symptoms are not successful; that might be a situation in which a patient would want to contact a physician or potentially seek emergency care,” Walker said.

Walker said there is no exact correlation, but they are seeing THC products like candy and foods being more readily available to the public.

“These THC-type products have become more readily available. But those are two fact patterns that exist on parallel tracks. But at this point, it would be premature to definitively say one is related to the other,” Walker said.

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He said the best preventative measure is to not smoke and live a healthy lifestyle.

“So, whether that is getting regular exercise and physical activity, whether that is avoiding smoking, whether that is avoiding processed foods, there are a whole range of common pieces of health advice, personal health advice, that practitioners and clinicians across the continuum of care would share with the public. And so you know, to the extent that you know smoking is a health risk, we would certainly encourage people who you know are smokers to look at programs or other approaches to try to quit smoking,” Walker said.

Walker said the VHHA will continue these types of studies to keep you safe.