by Danielle J. Brown, Maryland Matters November 24, 2024 Cannabis-related emergency room visits climbed steadily through July 2023, when recreational use was first legalized in Maryland, but have never reached that peak again, fluctuating up and down in the months since. That was just one of the findings of a new Maryland Health Department interactive dashboard that tracks cannabis-related ER visits, poison control calls and substance use treatment as well as data on marijuana use by age, gender, race and county. Despite the wealth of data, one thing the dashboard does not show are the reasons why people are going to the ER after consuming cannabis. But state health officials and public health officials said they are still excited to have the data, which they call a first step to understanding the impacts as recreational cannabis use becomes more normalized following legalization. “We need data to know what’s happening,” said Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman, deputy secretary for public health in the state health department. “This dashboard is really trying to help us understand what are the adverse health effects that we are seeing.” Maryland allowed use of medical marijuana in 2014. Voters approved a referendum to legalize cannabis for adult use […]
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