More than 20,000 marijuana related deaths appeared on US death certificates between 2000 and 2024. That is the finding of a new analysis of the CDC’s WONDER database. The figures count marijuana poisoning or a marijuana related disorder as the underlying cause of death or a contributing one. Taken together, they suggest cannabis related deaths carry a higher toll than most people assume.Connor Kubeisy first published the analysis for The Drug Report on 23 July 2026. It draws on the CDC’s Multiple Cause of Death data. Every US death certificate records one underlying cause of death, plus up to twenty contributing causes. A physician or medical examiner completes each certificate. The CDC and World Health Organization define the underlying cause differently from a contributing one. An underlying cause is the disease or injury that started the fatal chain of events. A contributing cause played a role without being the direct trigger.
Marijuana Poisoning and Drug Overdose Deaths
Marijuana poisoning carries the ICD 10 code T40.7. It can appear as a contributing cause alongside many different underlying causes of death. In 2024, 881 deaths recorded a drug overdose as the underlying cause, with marijuana contributing factor. That is part of a wider pattern of marijuana related deaths tracked in the CDC data. The figure works out to roughly 1.1 per cent of the 79,384 total drug overdose deaths that year. Yet it has grown 20 fold since 2000, when physicians recorded just 40 such deaths. The annual count peaked at 1,161 in 2022, then eased alongside a broader national fall in overdose deaths.
Broaden the count to any drug overdose, whether underlying or contributing. The total climbs further still. In 2024, 1,182 deaths recorded a drug overdose alongside marijuana poisoning as a contributing cause. Among these, poisoning was the most common underlying cause, with 888 deaths. Car crashes caused 117 of the deaths, firearms 45, heart disease 43, drowning 18, suffocation 18 and falls 10. Counting marijuana poisoning as a contributing cause regardless of the underlying cause reaches 1,198 deaths in 2024 alone. Across the full 2000 to 2024 period, the total reaches 14,025. That is one of the clearest single measures of cannabis related deaths in the data.
Mental and Behavioural Disorders Linked to Cannabis Use
Poisoning is not the only way marijuana appears on a death certificate. Mental and behavioural disorders due to cannabinoid use carry the ICD 10 code F12. They include withdrawal, withdrawal with delirium, psychotic disorder and amnesic syndrome. These conditions typically develop over an extended period of use, rather than from a single acute event. That makes them a slower moving strand of marijuana related deaths, distinct from the overdose figures above.
Deaths recording a marijuana related disorder as the underlying cause rose steadily. The annual count climbed from fewer than ten in 2000 to 35 in 2024. That totals 247 across the whole period. Counting the disorder as either underlying or contributing lifts the annual figure 12 fold. It rose from 68 deaths in 2000 to 824 in 2024. The cumulative total across the period reaches 7,881. Among the 824 deaths in 2024, poisoning was the leading underlying cause, with 180 deaths. Heart disease followed with 134, car crashes with 62 and chronic lower respiratory disease with 57. Firearms, diabetes and cancer accounted for 46, 36 and 35 deaths respectively.
The True Scale of Marijuana Related Deaths
Combine both categories and a clear picture emerges. In 2024, 1,918 deaths recorded marijuana poisoning, a marijuana related disorder, or both, as the underlying or contributing cause. That is up sharply from 129 in 2000. Across the full period, marijuana related deaths reached 20,985.
Even that figure almost certainly understates the toll. Analysts could only count deaths where a physician explicitly listed a marijuana related ICD 10 code on the certificate. Cannabis impairment can partly cause a fatal car crash. Yet the death would not register in these numbers unless a physician recorded that code alongside it. The tally also excludes cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a severe vomiting condition linked to chronic cannabis use. That condition only received its own ICD 10 code in October 2025. The tally excludes cannabinosis too, a chronic lung condition tied to cannabis smoke. That means the real scale of cannabis related deaths sits somewhere above the numbers reported here.
A Widening Gap Between Perceived Risk and Reality
The climb in marijuana related deaths sits awkwardly against public attitudes towards the drug. In 2024, only 25.8 per cent of Americans saw a great risk in smoking marijuana once a week. That finding comes from the same CDC WONDER analysis. Marijuana use keeps spreading, and cannabis products keep growing more potent than those available decades ago. The gap between perceived risk and recorded harm looks set to widen rather than close.
This same CDC WONDER platform draws on death certificates for US residents across decades. It covers demographic detail such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, state and county, alongside cause of death codes. That scale and consistency lets researchers track a slow moving trend, like the rise in marijuana related deaths, with confidence.
(Source: WRD News)