Minimum Legal Age of Nonmedical Cannabis Purchase Laws and Cannabis-Related Hospitalizations in Canada, 2015 to 2022.
Objectives. To determine whether the minimum legal age (MLA) for cannabis purchases is associated with reductions in cannabis-related hospitalizations in youths. Methods. We performed a population-based study examining all hospitalizations for cannabis use in Canada for individuals aged 15 to 44 yea...
| Publicado en: | American Journal of Public Health Vol. 115; no. 7; pp. 1166 - 1175 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
American Public Health Association
Jul2025
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=185864033&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 185864033 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00900036 APH jtl: American Journal of Public Health issn: 00900036 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2025 vid: 115 iid: 7 pid: 44 pub: American Public Health Association artinfo: ui: 185864033 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308090 ppf: 1166 ppct: 9 formats: tig: atl: Minimum Legal Age of Nonmedical Cannabis Purchase Laws and Cannabis-Related Hospitalizations in Canada, 2015 to 2022. aug: au: Myran, Daniel T. Talarico, Robert Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo Xiao, Jennifer Manuel, Doug Hobin, Erin Konikoff, Lauren Tanuseputro, Peter Taljaard, Monica affil: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, Ontario. ICES uOttawa, at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Sol Price School of Public Policy and Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles Clinical Epidemiological Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute at the time of this study Clinical Epidemiological Program and ICES uOttawa at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Ontario. University of Hong Kong, Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Hong Kong Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. su: Canada Substance abuse treatment Substance abuse prevention Government policy Hospital care Age distribution Public health Adults Acquisition of property Research funding Time series analysis Descriptive statistics Cannabis (Genus) Comparative studies Confidence intervals Hospital care of teenagers sug: subj: Substance abuse treatment Substance abuse prevention Government policy Hospital care Age distribution Public health Adults Canada Health and Welfare Funds Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Hospitals Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers Acquisition of property Research funding Time series analysis Descriptive statistics Cannabis (Genus) Comparative studies Confidence intervals Hospital care of teenagers ab: Objectives. To determine whether the minimum legal age (MLA) for cannabis purchases is associated with reductions in cannabis-related hospitalizations in youths. Methods. We performed a population-based study examining all hospitalizations for cannabis use in Canada for individuals aged 15 to 44 years (n = 14.6 million in 2018) between January 1, 2015, and March 31, 2022. MLAs varied across Canada. We used a controlled interrupted time series design to compare changes in cannabis-related hospitalizations between individuals above and below the MLA. Results. There were 137 901 cannabis-related hospitalizations during the study. Prelegalization rates of hospitalizations were increasing by 2% per quarter for individuals above and below the MLA. After legalization, hospitalizations began declining by 2% per quarter in individuals below the MLA (rate ratio [RR] quarterly slope change = 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95, 0.98) with no slope change for individuals above the MLA. The total effect, 3.5 years after legalization, was a 34% reduction (relative difference = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.49, 0.91; P =.011) in hospitalizations for those below relative to those above the MLA. Conclusions. Nonmedical cannabis legalization in Canada was associated with reductions in cannabis-related hospitalizations for youths below the MLA and with ongoing increases for individuals above the MLA. Public Health Implications. The results suggest that cannabis legalization may increase cannabis-related hospitalizations in adults but that MLAs may prevent such increases for at-risk young people in regions pursuing cannabis legalization. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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