Court-ordered cannabis treatment drops after legalization

Newly released data published in last month’s issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine concluded that marijuana treatments for young people declined after legalization.

The data, presented by researchers at Temple University, “was extracted from the Treatment Episode Dataset – Admissions and used to calculate trends in the number and proportion of criminal referrals for treatment of cannabis use disorder. They sought to examine “whether the proportion of referrals for treatment of cannabis use disorder (CUD) through the criminal justice system among adolescents (ages 12–17 years) and young adults (ages 18–24 years) varies by state recreational use (adult use). ) declined.” Cannabis legalization in the United States between 2008 and 2019.” And they said this difference-in-differences analysis [used to measure a cause and effect of a certain policy] “was used to estimate the impact of recreational legalization on the proportion of state-level criminal justice referrals relative to all admissions.”

The researchers said that nationwide, “the number and proportion of criminal justice referrals of juveniles and young adults is increasing.” [cannabis use disorder] Treatment decreased over the study period.”

“The proportion of criminal referrals of young adults declined significantly faster after recreational legalization than before (β = −0.045; 95% confidence interval, −0.079 to −0.010; P = 0.01),” the researchers wrote. “For juveniles, the trajectory of the decline in the proportion of criminal referrals did not change significantly after recreational legalization (β = −0.033; 95% confidence interval, −0.073 to 0.008; P = 0.11).”

The researchers concluded that their results “suggest that the proportion of referrals to CUD [cannabis use disorder] Treatment by the criminal justice system decreased following recreational legalization of young adults in the United States, likely reflecting a decline in cannabis-related arrests following legalization,” NORML said in its data release.

“The decline in the proportion of young adult referrals to the criminal justice system [cannabis use disorder] Treatment following recreational legalization is likely due to declining cannabis-related arrests. Although cannabis criminalization may result in court-ordered CUD treatment for some young adults without CUD, the decline in CUD treatment admissions represents a key health issue at a time of rising CUD risk factors associated with recreational legalization. Promoting screening and other referral sources for CUD treatment, such as primary care, may be warranted,” they concluded.

The findings represent a welcome development for legalization advocates, who have long argued that ending prohibition would free up resources in the criminal justice system.

NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said most people arrested for violating marijuana possession laws do not require mandatory drug treatment, and in the past those referrals were provided primarily to get people out of the criminal justice system to distract.

“Legalizing cannabis not only ends tens of thousands of unnecessary arrests for minor marijuana use, but also frees up space in drug treatment centers for those people who truly need it,” Armentano said in a statement accompanying the findings.

Marijuana legalization is still in its infancy in the United States, and researchers continue to learn more about the social and political outcomes of policy reform.

A long-term study published earlier this year found that marijuana legalization is not associated with drug abuse.

The study looked at different pairs of twins (more than 4,000 people in total) to examine the effects of living in states that allow recreational cannabis.

Although there was no link to a substance abuse disorder, the researchers found that it often led to increased cannabis use.

“In the twin control design accounting for prior symptoms of cannabis frequency and alcohol use disorder (AUD), respectively, the twin living in a recovery state used cannabis more frequently and had fewer AUD symptoms, on average, than his twin living in a recovery state Recreational state lived non-recovery state. Cannabis legalization was not associated with any other adverse outcome in the co-twin design, including disruption of cannabis use. No risk factor significantly interacted with legalization status to predict outcome,” they wrote.

“Recreational legalization was associated with increased cannabis use and reductions in AUD symptoms, but was not associated with other maladjustments,” researchers write. “These effects persisted in pairs of twins whose residences did not match. Furthermore, vulnerability to cannabis use was not exacerbated by the legal cannabis environment. “Future research could examine causal relationships between cannabis use and outcomes,” the researchers added.

Another study published last year found that marijuana legalization led to a decline in filled prescriptions in that state’s Medicaid program.

“These results have important implications,” said Shayam Raman, one of the researchers involved in the study. “The reductions in medication use we have identified could result in significant cost savings for state Medicaid programs. The results also suggest an opportunity to reduce the harm that can accompany the dangerous side effects of some prescription medications.”