David Krumholtz claims he “almost died a couple of times” due to a reaction from smoking weed.
The Santa Clause alum, 46, told Page Six in an interview published on Sunday, March 2, that after he became “a daily smoker,” he began to develop an uncommon condition called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) — which leads to repeated and severe bouts of vomiting, according to Cedars-Sinai.
“It’s rare, [but] it’s becoming more and more prevalent yearly — like, numbers are doubling every year,” Krumholtz shared during a Cinema Society screening of Riff Raff on Wednesday, February 26.
“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I almost died a couple of times,” he continued, describing the biggest side effect as “hyper-nausea.”
“I have unpaid emergency room bills up the wazoo. It’s really bad, It’s really dangerous. It’s as serious as a heart attack,” he said. “It’s horrifying for those that suffer from it.”
Krumholtz said there are “a lot of theories” as to what has caused a spike in CHS, which Cedars-Sinai states only affects “daily long-term users of marijuana,” but he thinks cannabis companies are to blame.
“Essentially, they messed up weed,” Krumholtz said. “They made it too strong, and they don’t know why it’s happening. There’s a lot of theories.”
The actor explained to Page Six that the brain has “cannabinoid receptors” and “you can blow out the receptors, like blowing out an engine, making it that every time you smoke pot — not every time, but if you smoke it enough — you get wildly, dangerously nauseous.”
The 10 Things I Hate About You alum said he no longer smokes weed and that he hopes more people become aware of CHS and its symptoms. He thinks “no one talks about” the dangers of weed “because it’s the friendly drug, it’s the drug that doesn’t kill you.”
However, he cautioned, “It’s a very addictive drug … and now that it’s super strong, it’s really addictive.”
Krumholtz suggested CHS pamphlets be in “every legal cannabis store” — — what he referred to as “an optional pamphlet that says, ‘Hey, if you start feeling nauseous, stop because there is nothing that works except stopping.’”
The actor previously told The New York Times in October 2024 that he lost 100 pounds and would spend 10 hours at a time in hot baths to temporarily relieve symptoms of CHS.
“I had numbness in my extremities, pain in my chest and my blood pressure skyrocketed,” he told NYT.
He added that he would have eventually died had he not suffered an episode that almost derailed his dream job: a role in the Oscar-winning 2023 film Oppenheimer. It’s what inspired him to quit marijuana for good.
Krumholtz earned praise for his performance in the award-winning Christopher Nolan film, but recently said that he’s still waiting for his next big role.
“The hardest part of being in the film that won everything and made $1 billion is that you go into this place of expectation. It’s righteous expectation, but the problem is when it doesn’t pan out or it isn’t panning out, you start to really lose your shit and fall into resentment,” he told The Hollywood Reporter last year. “So I can’t let that happen because, ultimately, it hurts me and it hurts my acting and it hurts my family. So I am trying to be as patient as possible, but there’s no one banging at the door, currently.”
Krumholtz married Vanessa Britting in May 2010 and have two children — daughter Pemma Mae, 10, and son Jonas, 8.
