It’s a fact: The average psychoactive content in marijuana has nearly quadrupled from roughly 4% to about 16% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) since the 1990s, according to data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. In the 14 years since Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational cannabis, quaint concerns like “Did this guy just sell me a bag of oregano?” have been replaced by “Will one more of these gummies put me in the hospital?” And this escalating potency is starting to pose real risks for habitual users. A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that hospital emergency room diagnoses of recurring nausea and uncontrollable vomiting linked to frequent marijuana use have leapt up 16% from October 2025 to May of this year. The CDC scientists noted that, in part, this “abrupt, sustained increase” can be attributed to the fact that the condition, dubbed “cannabis hyperemesis syndrome,” has now been afforded its own diagnosis code under the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-CM code R11.16, thank you). Informally, the condition is known as “scromiting,” a portmanteau of screaming and vomiting. But, even without that official reporting mechanism, ER cases of this troubling condition had already doubled between 2017 and 2021, according to prior research, with an estimated 2.75 million people impacted by the ailment annually now in the U.S.