A mysterious vomiting illness is becoming increasingly prevalent in US hospitals as a result of potent cannabis usage among teenagers.
The illness, where patients uncontrollably vomit and scream at the same time, is officially called 'cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome' but has been dubbed 'scromiting'.
Twenty-year-old Bo Gribbon told NBC News he experienced the illness in 2018 and began vomiting multiple times an hour.
"It felt like Edwards Scissorhands was trying to grab my intestines and pull them out," he said.
Over nine months the then-17-year-old visited the emergency department 11 times for the same issue and the doctor told him it was likely a side effect from cannabis use.
"The only thing that convinced me was that it stopped when I stopped smoking," Gribbon said.
NBC reported the illness is now becoming more prevalent in the United States as states legalise cannabis and as it becomes more potent.
Parkview Medical Centre in Pueblo, Colorado saw only five cases in 2009 but by 2018 that number had risen to more than 120.
Dr Timothy Meyers, the chair of a Colorado emergency department, said when he first arrived at the hospital 18 years ago, it was a condition he never saw.
"Now I see it practically every day."
Some of the ways to relieve the illness' symptoms include hot showers and baths but patients often have to stop using cannabis in order to completely recover.
