Acute and Severe Acute Pancreatitis and the Effect of Cannabis in States Before and After Legalization Compared With States Without Legalized Cannabis. Pancreas 2021 May-Jun 01;50(5):766-772
Date
05/22/2021Pubmed ID
34016899Pubmed Central ID
PMC8192470DOI
10.1097/MPA.0000000000001830Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85108020482 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 2 CitationsAbstract
OBJECTIVES: Cannabis legalization has increased its use. The incidence of acute pancreatitis (AP) and severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) has also increased. In this study, data on pancreatitis were obtained from 2 states before and after cannabis legalization and compared with 2 states without legalized cannabis.
METHODS: Data were extracted from State Inpatient Databases from the states of Colorado and Washington before recreational cannabis legalization (2011) and after legalization (2015). Arizona and Florida were used as the nonlegalized cannabis states. Multivariable logistic regression models were fit for AP and SAP to determine a trend difference between legalized and nonlegalized cannabis states.
RESULTS: Cannabis use, AP, and SAP increased in all states. The increase in AP and SAP was not significantly different between the states that legalized cannabis use and those that did not. Legalized cannabis states had lower charges for AP and SAP and shorter length of hospitalizations.
CONCLUSIONS: The trend of AP and SAP increased during the study period, but this was not correlated to cannabis use. Cannabis users had lower hospitalization costs and hospital stay. The effects of other confounders such as cannabis dose and delivery methods, alcohol, tobacco, and others need to be studied further as use increases.
Author List
Lara LF, Nemer L, Hinton A, Balasubramanian G, Conwell DL, Krishna SAuthor
Gokulakrishnan Balasubramanian MD Associate Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Aged
Cannabis
Databases, Factual
Female
Government Regulation
Hospital Costs
Humans
Incidence
Legislation, Drug
Length of Stay
Male
Marijuana Smoking
Middle Aged
Pancreatitis
Risk Assessment
Risk Factors
Severity of Illness Index
State Government
Time Factors
United States
Young Adult
