ReviewThe western journal of emergency medicine2019
Legalized Cannabis in Colorado Emergency Departments: A Cautionary Review of Negative Health and Safety Effects.
Review in The western journal of emergency medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The clouded debate: A systematic review of comparative longitudinal studies examining the impact of recreational cannabis legalization on key public health outcomes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Comparison of Perspectives on Cannabis Use Between Emergency Department Patients Who Are Users and Non-users.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Characteristics and Trends in Child Cannabis Exposures During Legalization in California.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
- Long-Term Efficacy and Safety of Inhaled Cannabis Therapy for Painful Diabetic Neuropathy: A 5-Year Longitudinal Observational Study.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Understanding the role of cannabis in patients with suicidal ideation presenting to the emergency department: systematic chart review.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- A quantitative projection of the net health effects of cannabis legalization in Germany.PloS one · 2025Article
- Trends in cannabis use in New Jersey: Effects of COVID-19 and cannabis legalization.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2024Article
- Trends in emergency department visits associated with cannabis use among older adults in California, 2005-2019.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Cannabis positivity rates in 17 emergency departments across the United States with varying degrees of marijuana legalization.Clinical toxicology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2023Article
- Can global or national disability weights represent provincial level?BMC public health · 2023Article
- Early Birds and Night Owls: Distinguishing Profiles of Cannabis Use Habits by Use Times with Latent Class Analysis.Cannabis (Albuquerque, N.M.) · 2023Article
- Cannabinoid Poisoning-Related Emergency Department Visits and Inpatient Hospitalizations in Kentucky, 2017 to 2019.Substance use & misuse · 2023Article
- Analysis of Substance Use and Suicidal Ideation in Midwestern Frontier and Non-Frontier Locations.South Dakota medicine : the journal of the South Dakota State Medical Association · 2023Article
- Management site and level of health care for cannabis- and synthetic cannabinoid-related poison control center cases involving older adults, 2016-2019.Drug and chemical toxicology · 2022Article
- Non-medical cannabis use: international policies and outcomes overview. An outline for Portugal.Trends in psychiatry and psychotherapy · 2022Article
- Impact of marijuana legalization on cannabis-related visits to the emergency department.Clinical toxicology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2022Article
- Associations of Healthcare Service Utilization With Cannabis Use Status, Use Reasons, and Use Characteristics Among Those Age 50 and Older.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2022Article
- Acute cannabis intoxication in the emergency department: the effect of legalization.BMC emergency medicine · 2021Article
- When Cannabis Use Goes Wrong: Mental Health Side Effects of Cannabis Use That Present to Emergency Services.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Review
- The Association Between Cannabis Use and Schizophrenia: Causative or Curative? A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cannabis legalization has led to significant health consequences, particularly to patients in emergency departments and hospitals in Colorado. The most concerning include psychosis, suicide, and other substance abuse. Deleterious effects on the brain include decrements in complex decision-making, which may not be reversible with abstinence. Increases in fatal motor vehicle collisions, adverse effects on cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, inadvertent pediatric exposures, cannabis contaminants exposing users to infectious agents, heavy metals, and pesticides, and hash-oil burn injuries in preparation of drug concentrates have been documented. Cannabis dispensary workers ("budtenders") without medical training are giving medical advice that may be harmful to patients. Cannabis research may offer novel treatment of seizures, spasticity from multiple sclerosis, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, chronic pain, improvements in cardiovascular outcomes, and sleep disorders. Progress has been slow due to absent standards for chemical composition of cannabis products and limitations on research imposed by federal classification of cannabis as illegal. Given these factors and the Colorado experience, other states should carefully evaluate whether and how to decriminalize or legalize non-medical cannabis use.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.