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“This study highlights the importance of considering the complex supply side of related drug markets and how this shapes opioid use and misuse.”
Canada legalized cannabis use in 2018 and since then, licensed cannabis retail outlets, called dispensaries, have been popping up with regularity. Although cannabis remains illegal under U.S. federal law, an increasing number of U.S. states have legalized its use and sale, some for recreational use but more frequently for medical use.
Deaths from overdoses of opioids — a class of drugs that include heroin, prescription pain relievers such as oxycodone, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a particularly powerful pain killer — have risen sharply in many countries, including Canada. Fentanyl, in particular, has caused wide alarm.
The researchers, using U.S. data, said highly addictive opioids represent more than two thirds of all U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2018. According to Canadian government data, there were 17,602 apparent opioid-related overdose deaths in Canada between January 2016 and June 2020.
Researchers have looked at what impact cannabis dispensaries have on the use, abuse and impact of other drugs in the past, and have returned with mixed results.
In response, the two U.S. researchers drilled down to a more local level to compare data in U.S. counties that actually have dispensaries, rather than look at statewide or nation-wide data.
Their study also took into account how many dispensaries were operating in each county, probing how the count of cannabis dispensaries relates to opioid deaths.
Their data set spanned from 2014 to 2018, the first year that structured data on dispensaries was available, and ending with the most recent period for detailed health statistics.
• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys
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Opioid overdose deaths occur less often in areas with more cannabis retail storefronts, study shows - National Post
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