Substance Use-Related ED Visits by Substance Type

This graph shows substance use-related ED visits by substance type, focusing on the most common illicit substances and alcohol. Marijuana (22%) was the second most common substance involved in substance-related 

ED visits. 

DAWN and Marijuana

v 1.0 December 2020 

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a nationwide public health surveillance system administered by the 

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and 

Quality. As of October 15, 2020, data are being abstracted from 49 hospitals. Ultimately, the system will include at least 

50 non-Federal general hospitals with 24-hour emergency departments (EDs), consisting of 10 sentinel hospitals and 

40 probability-sampled hospitals. Data are abstracted directly from hospital electronic health records. DAWN captures 

data on ED visits related to recent substance use and misuse, such as alcohol use, illicit drug use, suicide attempts, and 

nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals.

DAWN data can be used to monitor substance misuse trends and serve as an early warning system to identify new psychoactive substances. Since hospital recruitment is incomplete and the data are unweighted, this profile provides only 

preliminary results that are not generalizable to the US; caution must therefore be exercised in interpreting the data 

presented here.

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality For more information, please call (240) 276-1250

This profile presents data on ED visits related to marijuana use. The information provided below summarizes 

unweighted data abstracted from 4/1/2019 to 10/15/2020. The data on alcohol presented here include ED visits 

related to underage (less than 21 years old) alcohol use and adult (ages 21 years and older) alcohol use in 

combination with other substances since the abstraction of ED visits for adults involving only alcohol was not yet 

complete.
Marijuana Use-Related ED 

Visits by Gender

Marijuana Use-Related 

ED Visits 

by Disposition 

Marijuana Use-Related ED 

Visits by Age

Marijuana Use-Related 

ED Visits to Total ED Visits 

by Community Type

This graph shows the percentage of marijuanarelated ED visits to total ED visits by community 

type. In this graph, the denominator is total ED visits 

within each community type. Marijuana-related ED 

visits were a higher proportion of all ED visits in 

urban (0.93%) and suburban (0.86%) communities 

as compared to rural (0.43%) communities.

Over seventy percent (71.7%) of marijuana-related 

ED visits resulted in the patient’s release from the 

ED, such as departing the ED for home or receiving 

a referral for substance use and/or psychiatric 

treatment. Remaining dispositions included 

admission to the hospital (13.2%), transfer to 

another facility (9.1%) and other outcomes (6%), 

such as left against medical advice. 

Patients aged 26 to 45 accounted for 46.3% of marijuana-related ED visits, and patients aged 18 to 25 

accounted for 27.1%, the second largest proportion 

of these visits.

Two-thirds of marijuana-related ED visits involved 

male patients (66.9%); about one-third of the visits 

(33%) involved female patients. 

v 1.0 December 2020 

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality For more information, please call (240) 276-1250

DAWN and Marijuana