The CDC graph shows that in the 12-month period to April 2023 it was 110k, and t...

robertlagrant · 2024-09-18T13:36:32 1726666592

The context of my comment is that the previous commenter was saying it's to do with the legalisation of marijuana.

card_zero · 2024-09-18T13:43:05 1726666985

Oh, OK. I guess there are different ways to use the word "relative". Certainly a decline when zoomed in can look like part of an increase when zoomed out. But to be clear, this isn't one of those decline-in-the-rate-of-increase deals, which is what "relative" means to me. (Great news everybody! The rate of increase in the increasingly large numbers of deaths is slowing down!)

manvillej · 2024-09-18T13:37:34 1726666654

no. That is relative to 2023. There isn't going to be an absolute decrease because the chart started at 0 and we can't go below 0.

only absolute increases (increases that go over historical highs), relative increases (increases that do not go over historical highs), and relative decreases.

card_zero · 2024-09-18T13:45:39 1726667139

Yeah, that thought struck me too, looking at the entire graph there can never be an absolute decrease. But then, which timescale is the salient one?

robertlagrant · 2024-09-18T13:49:58 1726667398

In context it would be one that would show that marijuana legalisation was probably the cause.

card_zero · 2024-09-18T13:56:56 1726667816

Indeed, it's probably not due to marijuana legalisation, unless the resulting decline had a four year lag period for some reason, which I won't attempt to argue.

throwuxiytayq · 2024-09-21T10:06:09 1726913169

I’d be more surprised if the effect was immediate. Addiction takes years to develop, and years to recover from. I would also expect marijuana legalization to have more impact on (potential) future drug users than people already addicted to opioids.