The 4/20 celebrations in Vancouver took a bad turn as 64 people were admitted to hospital after they ingested marijuana.

According to Dave Lefebvre, spokesperson at Providence Health Care, patients had been at the 4/20 rally in downtown Vancouver smoking and eating marijuana. The patients were all admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital.



Vancouver's Marc Emery at the event in 2013 (Photo Credit: Marc Emery)

“A number of those people came in experiencing nausea or vomiting, some of them were complaining of being drowsy or having a decreased level of consciousness,” explained Lefebvre. “A few of them had heart palpitations and a couple them had sustained minor injuries at the event."

The patients were admitted to hospital throughout the day and by 4:00 p.m. 15 people went to hospital from the rally. The remaining patients were admitted from 6:00 p.m. to midnight.

“For a lot of the people who had come in experiencing nausea or vomiting, they had eaten the marijuana,” added Lefebvre. “They ate it in the form of cakes, smoothies, and freezies.”

All of the patients have been discharged from hospital and no one was considered to be suffering serious injuries. 4/20 is a world-recognized day to celebrate cannabis culture.