(HealthDay)—States that make marijuana a readily available retail item might see an increase in self-harm among younger men, a new study suggests.
Researchers found a correlation between U.S. states’ shifting marijuana policies and rates of self-harm among men younger than 40. Those rates—which include suicide attempts and non-suicidal behaviors like cutting—increased in states that legalized, and in some cases “commercialized,” recreational marijuana.
The findings cannot prove a cause-and-effect link, stressed senior researcher Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
It’s possible, he said, that there were other broad trends that affected self-harm rates in those states.
But Humphreys said the findings should be considered in the debate over states’ recreational marijuana policies.
PHOTO CREDIT: Torben Hansen
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