Study: Pot tourists are filling up ERs in Colorado

Residents of Colorado can handle their legal weed a lot better than out-of-state visitors, a new study suggests.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that tourists made up 168 out of every 10,000 ER visits in 2014, while locals comprised just 112 out of every 10,000 visits. Dr. Andrew Monte, senior author of the study and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado, told the Los Angeles Times there are three main scenarios where people wind up in the ER after smoking pot: When marijuana compounds an underlying condition like schizophrenia; when there are complications from a car accident caused while driving high, or vomiting, a side effect of daily smoking. Only very rarely do people do the the emergency room for marijuana intoxication, with symptoms like anxiety, and a racing heart.

There's probably a very simple explanation for the findings, Monte said. "Marijuana legalization has been going on for a while in Colorado, so people in the state might understand better how to dose themselves," he told the Times. "People coming in from out of state might have less experience with the particular products available here, and they might be using in excess because they are on vacation. It's kind of like how people drink heavily when they go to Las Vegas." Legislation was passed in Colorado in 2012 allowing adults over the age of 21 to carry one ounce of pot, and there's been a push to educate locals about safe marijuana use. Monte believes there should be more programs at dispensaries to pass along the same information to visitors.

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