A study published in the JAMA Network Open found that over 13 years, annual rates of marijuana-involved emergency room visits have increased by more than 475 percent for traffic injuries, likely accelerated by the commercialization of non-medical cannabis use in Ontario, Canada.
Researchers from the University of Ottawa (UOttawa) examined changes in the number and characteristics of marijuana-involved traffic injury emergency room visits in individuals ages 16 years and older in a repeat cross-sectional study during three time periods: before legalization from January 2010 to September 2018, after legalization with product and retail store restrictions from October 2018 to February 2020 and full commercialization with new products and an expanded number of dispensaries from March 2020 to December 2021.