Drop in drug-related deaths related to more liberal cannabis policies
Deaths related to drug abuse have fallen strongly since legalization progresses.
Frank LehmannSeptember 18, 2026
A study by researchers at Yale University and the University of California, Davis, published in the British Medical Journal, shows an association between the prevalence of cannabis dispensaries and a decline in opiate deaths, something not specific to other studies on the association between cannabis and opiates was investigated. The study, led by authors Greta Hsu and Balázs Kovács, looked at whether adding more dispensing points to an area, and thus easier access to cannabis, made a difference in opiate deaths. To conduct the study, the researchers looked at 812 counties in the United States and 23 states that allow legal pharmacies in any form. They only looked at states that had legalized cannabis in any form by the end of 2017. The results show that there was a 17 percent reduction in opiate deaths from 2014 to 2018 in areas that have at least one pharmacy. Two dispensaries per region appeared to reduce opiate deaths by 21 percent, and three dispensaries dropped the rate by an additional 8.5 percent. "Our study examines the relationship between the number of active dispensaries (a more direct measure of the availability of legal cannabis than the law) and the opioid-related mortality rate at the county level in 2014-18," the abstract of the study said. "We focused on the county level because counties are important units of analysis for population health studies. The opioid crisis is serious in the US as it killed more than 67,000 people in 2018 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention. Approximately 10 million people are abusing their prescription opiates at any one time, not to mention those who died from opiate use or those who obtained their opiates from the illicit market. Fentanyl specifically was responsible for 46,000 deaths in 2018, about two-thirds of the total deaths that year. The authors stated that the study should serve "to advance a greater understanding of the effects of cannabis legalization on opioid abuse and public health before policymakers can weigh the potential benefits against the harms of promoting cannabis legalization. "A higher number of medical and recreational deposits is associated with lower opioid-related deaths, particularly deaths related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. While the documented associations cannot be taken as causal, they suggest a possible association between an increased prevalence of medical and recreational cannabis dispensaries and a reduced opioid-related mortality rate. This study highlights the importance of considering the complex supply side of related drug markets and how this affects opioid use and abuse. " However, as in many studies of cannabis and opiate addiction, the authors do not specifically promote cannabis dispensaries as a way to help with the opiate crisis. The study ensures to state that "such conclusions are currently premature without evidence of causality." Such disclaimers are commonplace in cannabis research, and this is still another important piece of evidence that more access to cannabis means less demand for opiates.
