A mother’s anguished cries echoed through her TikTok video as she described agony worse than childbirth from marijuana vomiting syndrome. “I was crying and screaming and I was like ‘I can’t take this anymore!’ I hate my life,” she said, recounting her experience with uncontrollable vomiting after using cannabis. “I’m just begging God, like please make it stop!” Her suffering reflects a growing health crisis that medical professionals call scromiting, a portmanteau of screaming and vomiting that perfectly captures what happens when chronic cannabis users experience severe bouts of nausea and retching.

Moreover, cases are surging across the United States, with emergency rooms reporting increasing numbers of patients suffering from this bizarre condition. The rise in marijuana vomiting syndrome has left doctors scrambling to understand why some cannabis users develop these debilitating symptoms whilst others remain unaffected.

Understanding Marijuana Vomiting Syndrome And Its Symptoms

Emergency departments across the United States are witnessing a troubling trend related to chronic weed sickness. Habitual cannabis users, including teenagers, arrive in states of severe distress with symptoms that puzzle even experienced doctors. In fact, the presentation is so dramatic that medical staff can often recognise marijuana vomiting syndrome immediately.

“They are writhing, holding their stomach, complaining of really bad abdominal pain and nausea,” explains Dr Sam Wang, a paediatric emergency medicine specialist and toxicologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. His team regularly treats adolescents grappling with this cannabis-related illness.

The vomiting episodes can persist for hours, leaving patients weak and desperate. “They vomit and then just continue to vomit whatever they have in their stomach,” Wang notes. Interestingly, many scromiting patients report attempting scalding hot showers before seeking medical help, though the relief proves temporary at best.

Treatment involves anti-nausea medications and IV fluids to combat dangerous dehydration. However, the diagnostic journey proves expensive and invasive. Consequently, patients undergo blood tests, urine analysis, CT scans, and uncomfortable procedures like upper GI endoscopy, sometimes repeatedly.

“For some of our kids, this is their fifth ER visit in the past two months, with symptoms that they can’t control,” Wang reveals. The frequency speaks to both the severity of marijuana vomiting syndrome and the difficulty many face in connecting their symptoms to cannabis use.

When Scromiting Delays Turn Deadly

Waiting too long to seek treatment for this chronic cannabis condition carries serious risks. The relentless vomiting can trigger electrolyte imbalances, sending the body into shock and potentially causing organ failure. Therefore, what begins as severe discomfort can spiral into a life-threatening emergency.

Between 2005 and 2014, nearly one in five people hospitalised for cyclical vomiting in the United States reported concurrent cannabis use, according to a 2020 study. These numbers were recorded when only medical marijuana was legal in most states, suggesting the actual figures for marijuana vomiting syndrome today may be even higher.

The Strange Hot Water Compulsion In Cannabis Illness

Perhaps the strangest aspect of this cannabis-related illness is patients’ overwhelming compulsion to seek scalding hot baths or showers. Over half the original 19 patients documented in the landmark 2004 Australian study reported this peculiar coping mechanism. Subsequently, as more cases of chronic weed sickness emerged, hot bathing became a recognised hallmark of the condition.

“It’s pretty universal for these patients to say they need a really, really hot shower, or a really hot bath, to improve their symptoms,” Wang observes. This behaviour has become so closely associated with scromiting that doctors now consider it a diagnostic clue.

Why extreme heat provides relief from marijuana vomiting syndrome remains unclear. One theory suggests that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana’s main psychoactive compound, interacts with the body’s pain receptors in ways that make the distracting sensation interrupt the pain cycle. Nevertheless, the exact mechanism continues to baffle researchers.

This adds another layer to an already confounding condition. Cannabis has long been used to ease nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients, yet here it triggers the very symptoms it supposedly treats. Surprisingly, the answer may lie in dosage and potency.

“It’s been well documented that the amount of THC that now comes in cannabis is increasing substantially,” Wang points out. “In the ’90s the average was like 4% or 5%. Now in Colorado, it’s anywhere from 15% to 20%.” This dramatic increase in potency may explain why chronic cannabis condition cases have risen so sharply in recent years.

Rising Numbers Paint A Concerning Picture of Chronic Weed Sickness

The statistics tell a sobering story about marijuana vomiting syndrome. Following Colorado’s legalisation of recreational marijuana in 2012, researchers documented over 800,000 cases of vomiting related to cannabis between 2013 and 2018. That represents a 29% increase since legalisation. Additionally, the highest rates of this cannabis-related illness occurred in counties that previously had no marijuana dispensaries.

The trend shows no signs of slowing. Emergency room visits for adolescents aged 13 to 21 experiencing scromiting increased more than tenfold between 2016 and 2023, a July 2025 study revealed. Furthermore, another November 2025 study found rates of marijuana vomiting syndrome among adults aged 18 to 35 rose sharply during the pandemic years and remained elevated.

These figures likely underestimate the true scope of chronic weed sickness. Many patients hesitate to disclose their cannabis use to medical professionals, fearing legal consequences or judgement. As a result, countless cases of this chronic cannabis condition may go unreported or misdiagnosed as other gastrointestinal conditions.

Who Develops This Chronic Cannabis Condition?

Not every heavy cannabis user develops marijuana vomiting syndrome, which raises intriguing questions. “It’s not entirely clear who is predisposed to getting it,” Wang admits. “Is it a certain frequency or duration of use? Is it a specific potency? Or is it a specific type of product? We don’t have that data.”

Previous research challenges stemmed from the absence of a specific medical diagnosis code for scromiting. Researchers had to manually cross-reference vomiting cases with documented marijuana use, information many patients declined to share. Fortunately, that changed on 1 October 2025.

A US federal committee created R11.16, an official code for tracking this cannabis-related illness. The World Health Organisation followed suit, enabling researchers worldwide to track marijuana vomiting syndrome more accurately. Consequently, these developments promise better data and deeper understanding of this troubling phenomenon.

Breaking The Cycle Of Marijuana-Related Vomiting

The only proven way to prevent recurrence of this chronic cannabis condition remains clear: stopping cannabis use entirely. The original Australian researchers followed nine patients over time and found symptoms of marijuana vomiting syndrome vanished when marijuana was discontinued. However, symptoms returned upon resumption, demonstrating the direct link between cannabis and scromiting.

For young people drawn to increasingly potent cannabis products, the risks of chronic weed sickness deserve serious consideration. What might seem like harmless recreation can transform into cycles of debilitating illness, repeated hospitalisations, and genuine danger. Indeed, some patients with marijuana vomiting syndrome experience such severe episodes that they require intensive care.

Medical professionals emphasise that education about this cannabis-related illness is crucial. Many cannabis users remain unaware that scromiting exists or that their symptoms could be connected to their consumption habits. Therefore, raising awareness about marijuana vomiting syndrome becomes essential for prevention.

As one mother’s viral video demonstrates, the suffering from this chronic cannabis condition is real, the pain excruciating, and the solution requires confronting difficult truths about substance use and its consequences. Whilst cannabis enjoys growing acceptance and legalisation across many regions, the emergence of conditions like scromiting serves as a stark reminder that even widely used substances carry potential health risks.

Source: cnn