The month of October has seen a steady stream of new information on cannabis made available to the public. On the good side of things, a study showed a potentially unexpected connection between cannabis use and health outcomes for coronavirus patients. On the bad side, data released by the FBI showed an increase in cannabis-related arrests nationwide in 2022.
CANNABIS AND CORONAVIRUS
A study published earlier this month by the American College of Chest Physicians found that self-identified cannabis users fared better when battling COVID infection than those who did not identify as cannabis users. The results may seem counterintuitive, as cannabis smoke is known to damage the lungs, which were a main target of the respiratory coronavirus.
Cannabis users — the study did not differentiate between those who smoked, vaped, or consumed cannabis orally or otherwise — had considerably lower rates of intubation, acute respiratory distress, acute respiratory failure, and severe sepsis.
Critically, mortality rates were 2.9% for cannabis users compared with 13.5% for nonusers.
"Marijuana smokers had better outcomes and mortality compared to nonusers. The beneficial effect of marijuana use may be attributed to its potential to inhibit viral entry into cells and prevent the release of proinflammatory cytokines, thus mitigating cytokine release syndrome," the study's conclusion reads.
The study also noted that those who identified as cannabis users were younger and had a higher prevalence of tobacco use, but had fewer comorbidities such as obstructive sleep apnea, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus than the marijuana non-users.
ARRESTS ON THE RISE
Despite roughly half of Americans now living in jurisdictions where cannabis possession has been legalized, cannabis-related arrests rose nationwide in 2022 compared with the year prior, according to newly released data from the FBI.
There were 208,192 arrests for cannabis possession and another 18,916 arrests for cannabis distribution. Combined, those numbers are up 3.35% from 2021.
When sorted by offense category, cannabis arrests ranked ahead of arrests for crimes including weapons violations, vandalism and burglary — the latter by a more than two-fold margin.
These numbers present a broad but incomplete picture of cannabis arrests in the United States, as the FBI's database only includes law enforcement agencies covering 93.5 percent of Americans. Additionally, the increase in arrest numbers can at least partially be attributed to an increase in the number of agencies contributing their data to the FBI compared with the previous year.
That caveat is worth noting, as the 2022 numbers buck a larger trend. Annual cannabis arrests have fallen by 61.7% nationally since 2012, the year voters in Washington and Colorado approved the nation's first legalization measures. ♦
