Cannabis-related emergency visits increased among US youth during pandemic
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Key takeaways:
- Over 90% of emergency department visits involving cannabis among those aged 25 years or younger occur between the ages of 15 and 24 years.
- Improved education on cannabis storage and clearer packaging could help.
Cannabis-involved emergency department visits among children, teens and young adults in the United States increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, a study published in MMWR found.
Recent studies have identified a rapid increase in pediatric exposures to edible cannabis, and findings reported in Canada last year showed that pediatric emergency department visits due to cannabis exposure significantly increased after legalization of recreational cannabis.
According to the authors of the current study, approximately 18.7% of people in the U.S. aged 12 years or older used cannabis in 2021, with the expansion of legalized cannabis for both medical and nonmedical purposes increasing their ability to do so.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with increases in substance use for some youths; however, cannabis-involved emergency department [ED] visits began increasing statistically significantly several years before the start of the pandemic among all age groups except ages 15 [to] 24 years,” they wrote.
For the study, they collected data from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program on 539,106 cannabis-involved ED visits occurring among people aged younger than 25 years, from Dec. 30, 2018, to Jan. 1, 2023. They then measured average weekly cannabis-involved ED visits in this age group.
They found that the average number of weekly cannabis-involved ED visits increased during the pandemic compared with pre-pandemic numbers in each of three age groups:
- Among children aged 10 years or younger, the weekly average ranged from 30.4 to 71.5 visits during pandemic years compared with 18.7 to 23.2 visits in pre-pandemic years.
- Among adolescents aged 11 to 14 years, the weekly average ranged from 69.8 to 209.3 visits during the pandemic compared with pre-pandemic averages of 90.5 to 138.5.
- In the oldest age group, adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 24 years, the weekly average ranged from 2,275.8 to 2,813.2 visits during the pandemic, an increase over 2,117.5 to 2,531.1 visits before the pandemic.
Ultimately, they found that more than 90% of ED visits involving cannabis among people younger than 25 years occurred among teens and young adults aged 15 to 24 years. The average weekly cannabis-involved visits in this age group peaked at 2,813 in the second half of the 2020-2021 school year.
“Importantly, the current study found that cannabis-involved ED visits among all persons aged 25 years or younger increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite fluctuations, remained higher than 2019 pre-pandemic levels throughout 2022,” they wrote. “The specific reasons for these increases are unknown, and potential drivers might differ by age.”
The researchers said it is crucial that people safely store cannabis at home, and that better, clearer packaging be produced for these products.
“Improving clinicians’ awareness of rising cannabis-involved ED visits might aid in early diagnosis of cannabis intoxication among young persons,” they wrote. “Further, increasing adults’ knowledge regarding safe cannabis storage practices, strengthening youths’ coping and problem-solving skills through evidence-based prevention programs, and modifying cannabis packaging to decrease appeal to youths might help prevent intentional and unintentional cannabis use.”
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