Tourists who come to Colorado and take advantage of the state's liberal marijuana laws often end up in emergency rooms, doctors said Wednesday.
Emergency department visits involving marijuana-using visitors doubled from 2013 to 2014, the first year cannabis use was legalized in Colorado, a team of Denver-area doctors said.
"At our institution, the rate of ED visits possibly related to cannabis use among out-of-state residents doubled from 85 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 168 per 10,000 visits in 2014, which was the first year of retail marijuana sales," wrote Dr. Andrew Monte, an emergency room toxicologist at the University of Colorado Denver in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, along with colleagues.
Rates of visits involving marijuana did not change for in-state Colorado residents, they found.
