Legal Recreational Cannabis Sales and Opioid-Related Mortality in the 5 Years Following Cannabis Legalization in Canada: A Granger Causality Analysis

These findings suggest that increases in legal recreational cannabis sales following legalization were not meaningfully associated with changes in opioid-related mortality. Further examination with longer follow-up periods will be needed as the legal cannabis market becomes more entrenched in Canada, but these findings converge with previous work suggesting legalization is not related to opioid overdose mortality and further undermine that hypothesized link as a basis for legalization in other jurisdictions.