Recreational cannabis legalization in the Western U.S. was associated with faster growth in hospitalizations for atrial fibrillation, heart failure and heart attacks than in the rest of the country, a study found.
The study, published in BMJ Open, analyzed over 50 million hospital discharge records from Western US states between 2012 and 2019 using the National Inpatient Sample. Recreational cannabis is legal in 24 states, and the Western states with legal cannabis include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico Oregon and Washington.
For each year of legal cannabis sales, hospitalization rates rose about 4% faster for heart failure, 3% faster for heart attacks and 2% faster for atrial fibrillation than in other states, after adjusting for factors such as age, sex and income.
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