I reviewed the 2002 Drug Deaths report from DAWN and computed the total number of drug-related deaths for which marijuana was the ONLY drug reported by the coroner/medical examiner. As you may know, DAWN has two types of drug abuse deaths reported in the system: Drug induced (the drug or drugs caused the death, and Drug related (the drug played a contributory role in the death). These DAWN drug deaths are compiled in great detail for 31 large metro areas. DAWN cautions these do not represent a national total for drug deaths or even the total for a metro area in the absence of full participation.

I was interested in just the deaths where marijuana was the ONLY drug reported. When reported, marijuana is usually in combination with other drugs. When any marijuana deaths were reported, 77% involved both marijuana and at least one other drug. DAWN also cautions that some jurisdictions do not conduct toxicology tests for marijuana and do not report marijuana to DAWN, with the extent of this under reporting unknown.

I concentrated on figures where marijuana was the ONLY drug reported in the death (the other 23% of deaths). For 2002, there were a total of 157 deaths in the 31 metro areas in which marijuana was the ONLY drug reported. TWO of these deaths were reported as being induced, or directly caused, by marijuana (that is, an overdose). (Contrast this medical fact with the longstanding pro-drug claim that “no one ever died from ingesting marijuana.”)

There were no marijuana-only deaths in 11 of the 31 metro areas. However, Detroit reported 39, Kansas City 32, and Philadelphia reported 16. Six other metro areas had between 7 and 9 marijuana-only deaths each. The manner of the 157 total deaths involving only marijuana showed that 35 were suicides, 53 were accidental/unexpected, and 69 fell into the third “all other” category. I hope these figures throw more light on the marijuana situation in the United States. Marijuana shows up as the sole drug in deaths much more commonly than previously thought.