I'm pretty sure you're wrong and all these states actually voted to legalize/decriminalize pot. I know Alaska for sure did... Hell we Alaskan peeps voted to defy the feds and let them take our federal highway funds back in the 90s ... (Something modern lefties tell me isn't allowed anymore, withholding fed funds for not following fed dictates I mean.) Our politicians said we can't afford it and let the feds strong arm em, lots of Alaskan's left the R party after that "betrayal" by the politicians in power. Now we've got a shit ton of independents; its like 65k R's and 10K D's out of 700k.
Congratulations
Overdose deaths from opioids continue to rise in Alaska | KWHL
"with the powerful painkiller fentanyl linked to a larger portion of the deaths last year" and "Fentanyl-related deaths have increased dramatically, linked to 5 in 2016 and 28 last year." aka not pot ODs.
Back when pot was legal up here there was basically zero desire for other drugs, it was a matter of state pride that we smoked locally grown pot - it kept out most of the hard shit. Alaska born, Alaska grown, Alaska stoned - that was the motto when I was in HS. Other drugs, acid, coke, etc, were considered to be "foreign imports" and they were frowned upon and shunned by nearly all of us Alaskan kids and teens - yes pot smoking was wide spread as shit, everyone had tried it and most were still doing it, but it was considered to be "anti-Alaskan" to "pollute" it, I remember us Mustang's (my HS) ran a drug dealer out of town because he laced our shit with acid and a girl got sick on it. We didn't put up with anyone messing with the MTF (Matanuska Thunder ****, world renowned to this day; it was grown by a local in Palmer/Wasilla - that's the Matanuska Valley btw) It was "sacred" and that idk ideology kept our shit under control. It was the Fed's forcing us to make it illegal (by withholding Fed funds) that opened the doorway to the current ******* mess of drug shit we have now. I'm actually surprised the OD's aren't 100% spice cause it's ******* up the east side of Anchorage big time; that shits nasty - there was a chick made national news for flipping the **** out in a restaurant not to long ago, don't see that kinda shit off pot...
In any event, it's not pot causing OD's up here, its always been the other shit, shit that didn't become popular until the Feds decided to make the punishment for pot the same as for hard drugs - now-a-days MTF is gone, the Feds destroyed the plant strain, and kids figure if you're going to get caught and be destroyed for life, you might as well do the hard shit. As usual, the government ***** up everything they touch. Besides, if folks want to OD on drugs, let em die happy. Hammer down on those who deal to kids; throw those fuckers away, but the adults that want to get stupid dead? Let em (and btw those OD's up here, the 108 last year, were almost all folks age 25-44 - adults playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.)
Oh and for the record here; 108 ODs in Alaska in 2016 and we had 109 deaths because of Alzheimer's in 2016 too. That's listed as number 9 on the "leading causes of death" in Alaska - #1 is Malignant neoplasms at 974 and #2 is heart disease at 815...