The Impact of Marijuana Prices on Emergency Department Admissions
- Presenter:
Chair: Jody L. Sindelar; Discussant: Edward Norton Mon June 5, 2006 15:30-17:00 Room 332
There is a common belief among the general public that the health consequences of marijuana use are relatively minor even though the rates of dependence have grown significantly over the past decade. In this paper we examine the association between marijuana use and the utilization of emergency department (ED) services using quarterly data from the 1994-2002 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN). Reduced form models evaluate the association between local marijuana prices and the number of marijuana-involved ED episodes. Additional controls are included to account for high rates of alcohol and cocaine use. We find that even when we control for alcohol and cocaine prices, counties with lower marijuana prices have statistically higher marijuana-involved ED mentions. This relationship holds for marijuana-only mentions as well as encounters involving marijuana and other drugs. The findings are even stronger when we restrict the sample to episodes involving individuals less than 25 years of age. These results provide convincing evidence that there are real acute health consequences associated with marijuana use.
