United States marijuana legalization and opioid mortality trends before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

CONCLUSIONS: During the past decade, marijuana legalization in the US was associated at the jurisdiction level with a greater acceleration in opioid death rate. An even greater increase in opioid mortality occurred in recreational-legalizing jurisdictions with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marijuana legalization is correlated with worsening of the US opioid epidemic.PMID:38700393 | DOI:10.5055/jom.0829
Source: Journal of Opioid Management - Category: Addiction Authors: Source Type: research