Maryland’s new cannabis dashboard keeps tabs on ER visits
Last month, 813 people across Maryland made a visit to an emergency room due to cannabis use. That’s 67 fewer people than in September and just slightly below the monthly average number of emergency room visit involving cannabis use this year, which sits at 816.9 ER trips.
These are just a few of the latest data points that anyone can now examine on the Maryland Department of Health’s newest public health dashboard. The dashboard — officially the Maryland Cannabis Public Health Data Dashboard — was released Wednesday and aims “to help navigate the public health impacts of cannabis use,” according to a press release from MDH.
State health officials said collecting and sharing the data will inform policy decisions, resource allocation and aid in the evaluation of public health interventions.
“Furthermore, this dashboard will help to identify health disparities ensuring that vulnerable populations receive appropriate attention,” said Dr. Deondra Asike, chairperson of the Maryland Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council, in a release.
On July 1, 2023, recreational use of cannabis by adults 21 years and older in Maryland became legal. During the first week after pot prohibition ended, dispensaries sold $20.9 million in legal weed products, according to the Maryland Cannabis Administration.
In Maryland, medical and recreational marijuana is legal, and police cannot stop a person or a vehicle solely based on the smell of cannabis. People can’t just consume cannabis anywhere, including public places like streets, sidewalks, parks, bars and public transit.
And as of this past June, Gov. Wes Moore pardoned more than 175,000 cannabis-related convictions, nullifying guilty verdicts decided when carrying small amounts of the drug or paraphernalia was illegal.
Although legal, there is still an illegal cannabis market in Maryland.
The new public health dashboard shows monthly emergency room visits involving cannabis since 2019 by county, age group, race and sex, as well as calls to Maryland and Washington, D.C., poison control centers, which can be broken down by the same demographics.
The health department said recent data from the dashboard shows a “significant increase” in the number of emergency room visit related to cannabis use. The most notable rise, according to MDH, was among people aged 20 to 29.
In the first month after weed was legalized, Maryland saw its highest number of emergency visits — at 928 — related to cannabis. One year later in July 2024, there were 837 visits, an almost 10% decrease.
The dashboard also includes data on how many people utilized substance use disorder services related to cannabis, as well as data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, an on-site survey of Maryland middle school and high school students administered every two years, that includes questions related to substance use.
The data has been trending downward for middle and high school students since the 2012-2013 school year, 10 years before marijuana was legalized in Maryland. For the 2022-2023 school year, 4.6% of middle school students said they had tried cannabis, compared to 23% of high school students.
There is no data available yet beyond the 2022-2023 school year, which ended about one month before cannabis was legalized in the state, according to the Maryland Department of Education.
“By tracking key indicators, we can create programs and resources aimed at preventing youth cannabis use, promoting safe storage of products to prevent accidental poisonings, and ensuring that existing services effectively support Marylanders facing adverse effects from cannabis use,” said Deputy Secretary for Public Health Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman.
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