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The Department of Health in the state of Maryland recently rolled out a tool to track the effects of marijuana use on public health. The tool, dubbed the Cannabis Public Health Data Dashboard, offers user-friendly visualizations of marijuana trends prior to and after the legalization of recreational marijuana.
It also provides data on the use of the drug by youth as well as adults, visits to the ER, the utilization of substance use services, and calls made to the D.C. and Maryland poison centers.
Data obtained from the dashboard shows that a 44% increase in ER visits related to the use of marijuana was recorded among individuals aged between 20-29. Data also shows that calls made to poison centers also increased, particularly for those below the age of 20. Between 2021 to 2023, calls to these centers almost doubled for children aged nine and below, and tripled for kids aged 10-14.
Those who use the tool will also be able to analyze sub-populations based on gender, ethnicity, race, and age.
This move by the state comes two years after it legalized adult-use marijuana. Legal recreational sales in the state begun in July 2023,with the state raking in more than $4.5 million. Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman, the state’s Deputy Secretary for Public Health, stated that monitoring the impact of the recreational use of marijuana on public health was important.
He explained that by tracking vital indicators, the state could come up with programs and resources focused on promoting proper storage of marijuana products to prevent poisonings, preventing the use of marijuana by the youth, and making sure that current services effectively supported individuals in the state who were suffering from adverse effects of marijuana use.
Data from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey and the 2022/23 Youth Risk Behavior Study shows that the use of marijuana among youth in the state has been reducing since before the drug’s recreational use was legalized. The data also shows a modest increase in marijuana use among adults, going to 11.7% in 2022 from 9% in 2021.
Dr. Deondra Asike, Chairperson of the state’s Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council, added that gathering and sharing data on the dashboard would ensure that resources were efficiently allocated, inform policy decisions based on evidence, and assist in the assessment of public health interventions.
Furthermore, she noted, the tool would aid in the identification of health disparities, ensuring that individuals in need received the attention they required.
The data being collected through the tracker in Maryland could provide useful insights even to firms like Canopy Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: CGC) (TSX: WEED) that operate in other jurisdictions because consumer behavior doesn’t usually vary so much across geographical dispersions.
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