Assessing health disparities and access to healthcare has been an important issue for emergency preparedness and response efforts in the Denver metropolitan area. There have been several high profile MJ-related illness outbreaks in the US over the past 2 years. The legalization and retail sale of recreational MJ in Colorado necessitates enhanced surveillance for adverse effects from MJ use. TCHD and DPH coordinated to use syndromic surveillance data to provide situational awareness and timely outbreak detection related to MJ, including health disparities and overall impacts on population health.
Objective
Adverse health effects related to marijuana (MJ) use may disproportionately impact populations based on age or gender. To explore whether disparities exist among persons seeking emergency department (ED) care related to MJ use, Tri-County Health Department (TCHD) and Denver Public Health (DPH) developed MJ use case definitions, described patient demographics, mapped patients’ geographic distribution relative to marijuana dispensary locations, evaluated access to healthcare, and investigated the potential impact of MJ on pediatric health.