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Background

Marijuana is one of most widely used illicit substances globally. The risks of injury experienced by marijuana users relative to non-users have been poorly quantified in prospective studies. We investigated the associations between marijuana use and fatal or hospitalised injury in the New Zealand Blood Donors' Health Study.

Methods

At recruitment to this prospective cohort study in 1998-1999, the 22,389 participants completed a self-report survey on demographic, personal and lifestyle questions including the frequency of marijuana use. Using unique identifiers, these data were record-linked to national mortality and hospital discharge databases to ascertain participants' injury-related admissions or deaths from recruitment to 31 December 2014. The associations between marijuana use and injury were investigated using Cox proportional hazards analyses, adjusting for socio-demographic and …