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The condition is called ‘scromiting’ because of the screaming and vomiting that patients experience
Rachel Dobkinin New YorkWednesday 03 December 2025 21:57 GMTComments
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A pain that one mom on social media called worse than childbirth has been associated with a condition caused by chronic marijuana use.
The increasingly common condition — called “scromiting” because of the screaming and vomiting that patients experience — is known in the medical community as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome or CHS.
“I was crying and screaming and I was like ‘I can’t take this anymore!’ I hate my life,” the TikTok mom said, according to a CNN article about the condition. “I’m just begging God, like please make it stop!”
CHS has been on the rise as recreational marijuana usage becomes more popular. A total of 24 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the adult use of recreational marijuana.
Dr. Sam Wang, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist and toxicologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, has treated minors with CHS.
open image in galleryA pain that one mom on social media called worse than childbirth has been associated with a condition caused by chronic marijuana use (iStock/Getty Images)“They are writhing, holding their stomach, complaining of really bad abdominal pain and nausea,” Wang told CNN in a 2021 interview.
The condition can be deadly if not treated properly.
“Regardless of whether it’s cannabis hyperemesis syndrome or another virus that makes you vomit a lot, if you let it go too long, you can have electrolyte disturbances, go into shock and have organ failure,” Wang said.
If you are hospitalized with CHS, doctors may give you IV fluids and electrolytes to help with dehydration from vomiting, according to the Cleveland Clinic. You may also be treated with antiemetics, which are drugs to treat nausea and vomiting.
While these treatments may temporarily relieve CHS symptoms, the only way to permanently get rid of the condition is to stop all marijuana use.
It may be strange to think of marijuana as a cause of nausea and vomiting, given that the drug has been known to relieve these symptoms in cancer patients who are being treated with chemotherapy.
open image in galleryThe increasingly common condition called “scromiting” is known in the medical community as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome or CHS (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images)Wang suggested increased dosage levels of THC, the main ingredient in cannabis that gives you a high when consuming marijuana, as a potential reason why the drug is making people so sick.
“It’s been well documented that the amount of THC that now comes in cannabis is increasing substantially,” the doctor said. “In the ’90s the average was like 4% or 5%. Now in Colorado, it’s anywhere from 15% to 20%.”
While not all long-time marijuana users get CHS, it is becoming a wider concern.
A 2020 study found that between 2005 and 2014, nearly 1 in 5 people hospitalized with severe, recurring vomiting were using marijuana.
Wang and his colleagues published a study in 2021 that suggested the legalization of marijuana in Colorado was associated with an increase in vomiting-related cases. Researchers studied more than 800,000 patients from 2013 to 2018.
A study that came out last month found that CHS among adults aged 18 to 35 years rose during the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2021.
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