Study: Vaping Lung Injury More Common in States Where Cannabis Is Illegal

The study was published on April 6 in JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, with researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Its title is "National Cannabis Legalization Policies and Respiratory-Related Lung Disease Associated with Medical and Recreational Use."

The study indicates: "Data shows that EVALI cases are concentrated in states where consumers do not have legal access to recreational cannabis dispensaries. This association is not driven by differences in e-cigarette use across states, and the incidence of EVALI is unrelated to the rates of e-cigarette use in those states. A possible inference from our results is that a legal cannabis market may help mitigate or potentially prevent EVALI."

The researchers analyzed data from all 50 states and Washington D.C., including EVALI case data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 2019; 2017 population data from the Monitoring, Epidemiology, and End Results database; and estimates of e-cigarette use from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and 2017 e-cigarette usage estimates based on this study.
 

The study shows that in states with adult-use programs, there are 1.7 EVALI cases per million people, while in states with medical programs, there are 8.8 cases per million, and in states with a complete ban, there are 8.1 cases per million.

The study also asserts: "Testing for differences in average incidence rates indicates that states with recreational cannabis have 7.1 fewer cases per million than states with medical cannabis, and 6.4 fewer cases per million than states with bans. The difference in EVALI incidence rates between medical and banned states is not statistically significant."

The study indicates that the reasons for this trend are unclear, although it suggests that legal dispensaries are less likely to sell contaminated products compared to the black market.