Can You Die From Marijuana? The Deaths the Industry Says Do Not Exist
Marijuana deaths are real, and they are counted. Between 2000 and 2024, 20,985 U.S. death certificates listed marijuana poisoning or a marijuana-related disorder as a cause of death, 1,918 of them in 2024 alone. Children have died from edibles. Adults have died from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. People treated for marijuana addiction die by suicide at nearly ten times the rate of the general population, and daily users face higher odds of heart attack and stroke. “No one has ever died from marijuana” is a slogan, not a statistic.
U.S. deaths with marijuana poisoning as a contributing cause
Any underlying cause, death certificates, CDC WONDER
What death certificates say
Every U.S. death certificate carries one underlying cause and up to twenty contributing causes, filled in by a physician or medical examiner. Two codes name marijuana: T40.7, poisoning by cannabis, and F12, mental and behavioral disorders due to cannabinoids. The Drug Report pulled every death carrying either code from the CDC’s WONDER database.
Deaths with a marijuana-related disorder as a cause
Underlying or contributing, death certificates
A twelve-fold rise from 68 in 2000 to 824 in 2024. In 2024 the underlying causes behind these deaths were led by poisoning (180), heart disease (134), car crashes (62), chronic lung disease (57) and firearms (46).
Marijuana in drug overdose deaths
These are undercounts. A death is included only if the certifier wrote a marijuana code on the certificate. A crash caused in part by marijuana with no code recorded is not here, and neither are deaths from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which did not get its own code (R11.16) until October 2025. The CDC itself notes that cannabinoid screening is not universal and that detection is “likely underestimated.”
The Drug Report; Tanz et al., CDC MMWR, 2026; CDC WONDER multiple cause of death
“No one has ever died from marijuana”
Here is the claim, where it comes from, and what is true about it.
“Unlike alcohol, THC is incapable of causing a lethal overdose in humans.”
Paul Armentano, NORML, 2024
What is true, and what is not
True: THC does not shut down breathing the way heroin or fentanyl does, and the CDC found cannabis was the only drug involved in just 9 of 209,166 overdose deaths it reviewed. Neither do cigarettes, and tobacco kills more Americans than any other drug. “No overdose” has never meant “no deaths.”
Not true: that nobody dies. In those same 209,166 deaths, certifiers listed cannabis as a cause of death 1,687 times, almost always alongside fentanyl or stimulants. A four-year-old’s autopsy attributed his death to THC from gummies. Forensic pathologists have published fatal cases of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Pooled studies find twice the risk of cardiovascular death. And the deaths that follow marijuana psychosis and addiction, by suicide, are counted in the thousands. The industry’s sentence is built to make you picture an opioid overdose and then stop thinking.
CDC MMWR, 2026; NIDA, which now warns that edibles are “a growing health concern” and that marijuana is “the drug most frequently found in the blood of drivers involved in motor vehicle crashes, including fatal ones”
Children, edibles and a syndrome with no code until 2025
Children and edibles
Poison center cases of children under six eating marijuana edibles rose 1,375 percent in five years; 22.7 percent were admitted to a hospital, nearly all from exposures at home. In May 2022, four-year-old Tanner Clements of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, died after eating THC gummies; the autopsy attributed his death to THC, and his mother pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Tweet, Nemanich and Wahl, Pediatrics, 2023; NBC Washington, June 2023
Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome
Heavy, long-term use can cause cycles of uncontrollable vomiting. Most people recover when they stop. Some do not get the chance. Forensic pathologists reported three deaths in people with a CHS history, two of them attributed to the syndrome itself. Brian Smith Jr. of Indianapolis was 17 when he died in October 2018; the autopsy attributed his death to dehydration from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. The CDC created a diagnosis code for CHS only in October 2025, so none of these deaths appear in the counts above.
Nourbakhsh et al., Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2019; Indianapolis Star, 2019
Both of these are products of the commercial market: edibles that look like candy and concentrates and high-THC flower that make daily heavy use the norm. Neither existed at scale before legalization.
Heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death
Pooled across 24 studies
Storck et al., Heart, 2025, systematic review and meta-analysis
Daily users, 434,104 adults
Among people who never smoked tobacco, the stroke association was stronger still: 2.16 times.
Jeffers et al., Journal of the American Heart Association, 2024
Users under 50, 4.6 million records
the risk of heart attack among marijuana users compared with matched non-users; 4.3 times the risk of ischemic stroke and 1.5 times the risk of death from any cause.
In 2024, heart disease was the second most common underlying cause of death on certificates that listed a marijuana-related disorder. The industry sells marijuana as the safe alternative to alcohol; the cardiology literature has stopped agreeing. More on the heart health deep dive.
The deaths that follow addiction and psychosis
Five-year death hazard after hospital care for cannabis use disorder
Ontario, 107,000 patients versus the general population, adjusted hazard ratio
Within five years, 3.5 percent of people treated in hospital for cannabis use disorder were dead, six times the rate of the general population. The accompanying editorial: “We need a nationwide public health campaign to address the dangers of cannabis use and cannabis use disorder.”
Myran et al., JAMA Network Open, 2025; Bierut and Fang, editorial
Suicidal thinking in young adults
Among 281,650 adults aged 18 to 34 in the federal survey, cannabis use disorder tripled to quadrupled the prevalence of suicidal ideation even in people with no depression.
Han, Compton, Einstein and Volkow, JAMA Network Open, 2021
Schizophrenia
In Denmark, up to 30 percent of schizophrenia cases among young men may be attributable to cannabis use disorder; in Ontario the share nearly tripled after legalization. Psychosis is the pathway behind many of the suicides families describe on our Parent Action Network stories page: Johnny Stack, 19. Antonio DiLossi, 21. Haley Gresham, 15.
Hjorthøj et al., Psychological Medicine, 2023; Myran et al., JAMA Network Open, 2025; SAM on marijuana and mental health
And the deaths that never get a marijuana code
Colorado traffic deaths involving a driver who tested positive for cannabinoids, up 240 percent since legalization. Most carry no marijuana code on the death certificate, so they are not in the 20,985.
Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, 2025; see marijuana and driving
The honest bottom line
Marijuana is not fentanyl, and SAM has never said it is. Neither is tobacco, and it is the deadliest drug in America. A drug does not have to stop your breathing to kill you. It can poison a child, dehydrate a teenager to death, double the odds of a fatal heart event, drive a young man into psychosis and suicide, or put an impaired driver on the road. Every one of those deaths is in the record. Commercialization multiplies them, which is why the counts on this page rise every year the market grows. See the Legalization Impact Report.
Marijuana deaths: common questions
Can you die from marijuana?
Yes. Marijuana does not cause the respiratory-arrest overdose opioids do, but neither do cigarettes, and tobacco is the deadliest drug in the country. Between 2000 and 2024, 20,985 U.S. death certificates listed marijuana poisoning or a marijuana-related disorder as a cause of death. People die from edible poisoning (including a four-year-old in Virginia in 2022), cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, heart attack and stroke linked to use, suicide following marijuana psychosis and addiction, and crashes involving THC-positive drivers.
Has anyone ever died from a marijuana overdose?
Certifying physicians listed marijuana poisoning as a contributing cause in 881 U.S. overdose deaths in 2024 and 10,496 from 2000 to 2024, almost always alongside other drugs. CDC data from 31 states found cannabis listed as causing death in 1,687 overdose deaths from 2021 to mid-2025, and as the only drug in 9. A four-year-old’s 2022 death from THC gummies was ruled a THC death by the medical examiner.
How many people die from marijuana each year?
In 2024, 1,918 U.S. death certificates listed marijuana poisoning or a marijuana-related disorder as an underlying or contributing cause, up from 129 in 2000. That figure excludes deaths from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which had no diagnosis code until October 2025, and most crash deaths involving THC-positive drivers, so the true number is higher.
Can marijuana cause a heart attack or stroke?
The evidence says yes. A 2025 meta-analysis of 24 studies found marijuana use associated with 1.29 times the risk of acute coronary syndrome, 1.20 times the risk of stroke and 2.10 times the risk of cardiovascular death. Daily users in a survey of 434,104 adults had 25 percent higher odds of heart attack and 42 percent higher odds of stroke, and a study of 4.6 million patients under 50 found users had 6.2 times the risk of heart attack.
Does marijuana increase suicide risk?
Yes. People treated in hospital for cannabis use disorder in Ontario died by suicide at 9.7 times the rate of the general population within five years, and 3.5 percent were dead within five years overall. Among U.S. young adults with no depression, cannabis use disorder was associated with three to four times the prevalence of suicidal thinking.
Can a child die from eating marijuana edibles?
Yes. Poison center cases involving children under six rose 1,375 percent from 2017 to 2021, with nearly a quarter admitted to a hospital. In 2022 a four-year-old in Virginia died after eating THC gummies; the autopsy attributed his death to THC. Edibles should be locked away like any other drug, and SAM supports banning products that look like candy.
Related: Marijuana myths and facts · Parent stories · Marijuana and mental health · Marijuana and driving · Marijuana potency · The Drug Report analysis
Say their names, then say the number.
The families on our Parent Action Network pages lost children to a drug the industry calls harmless. The death certificates say otherwise. Read their stories and the data, then share both.
