According to a first-of-its-kind study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, marijuana is rarely associated with ER visits despite it being the most commonly used illegal drug.

NORML Deputy Director and Marijuana is Safer coauthor Paul Armentano has a new piece up on the AlterNet Speakeasy discussing the details. Here's an excerpt, or you can click HERE to read the entire article:

Investigators concluded, “[M]arijuana was by far the most commonly used (illicit) drug, but individuals who used marijuana had a low prevalence of drug-related ED visits”...

A prior case-control study conducted by the University of Missouri also reported an inverse relationship between marijuana use and injury risk, finding, “Self-reported marijuana use in the previous seven days was associated … with a substantially decreased risk of injury.”

Most recently, a RAND study published this month reported that fewer than 200 total patients were admitted to California hospitals in 2008 for “marijuana abuse or dependence.” By contrast, there are an estimated 73,000 annual hospitalizations in California related to the use of alcohol.