Living near a cannabis dispensary may increase your risk of cannabis-related health issues.
A population-based natural experiment investigated the link between proximity to cannabis retail stores and cannabis-related harms. ()
The study revealed that individuals living near these stores, especially in neighborhoods with a higher concentration of outlets, faced increased rates of cannabis-related negative outcomes.
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Limiting Cannabis Retail Density and Location for Public Health Benefits
The findings indicate that implementing limits on the total number of retail stores, controlling their density, or restricting their locations could provide notable public health benefits. This research has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers from North York General Hospital and colleagues studied data from 6,140,595 residents of Ontario, Canada aged 15 to 105 years old residing in 10,574 neighborhoods between April 2017 and December 2022 to determine if exposure to a cannabis store after legalization in October 2018 affected neighborhood-level rates of cannabis-related emergency department (ED) visits.
They leveraged provincial data on cannabis store locations to define neighborhoods as exposed (within 1000m of a cannabis retail store) or unexposed (more than 1000m from a cannabis retail store). The primary health outcome was the neighborhood level rate of cannabis-attributable ED visits per 100,000 persons aged 15 years or older.
Cannabis Store Exposure Linked to Urban, Low-Income Neighborhoods Without Raising ED Visits
The researchers found that exposed neighborhoods were more likely to be in large urban centers and the lowest income quintile compared to unexposed neighborhoods. Overall, exposed neighborhoods did not experience an increase in monthly rates of cannabis-attributable ED visits after they were exposed to a cannabis store, whereas unexposed neighborhoods experienced a reduction in monthly rates of cannabis-attributable ED visits.
Relative to unexposed neighborhoods, the absolute rate of cannabis attributable ED visits increased by 12% (CI, 6% to 19%) in exposed neighborhoods. There was also evidence that having more cannabis stores within 1000 m correlated to larger increased in rates of cannabis-attributable ED visits.
The findings suggest that legalization of cannabis accompanied by retail commercialization may have different public health risks as opposed to legalization alone.
References:
- Effect of Nonmedical Cannabis Legalization and Exposure to Retail Stores on Cannabis Harms: A Quasi-experimental Study – (https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-01960)
Source-Eurekalert