The consumption of teen pots has not increased despite legalization, researchers conclude
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts said in March that he is against medical cannabis because “if you legalize marijuana, you will kill your children. That shows the data from all over the country. ‘
Yeah, just the opposite of that, Pete.
In a new research letter published Sept. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers analyzed 28 years of data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to determine whether states were medical or recreational -Cannabis laws have later seen an increase in cannabis use among U.S. high school students.
Building on an earlier study that analyzed YRBS data from 1993 to 2017, this updated study offers an expanded look at the subject by also adding results from 2018 and 2019.
While the authors note that the previous study was scrutinized because it only used pre- and post-legalization data from a total of seven states (including just three states with recreational markets), the new study contains a far more robust dataset – in some cases several waves from different time periods – from a total of 10 states.
However, the results are largely the same.
“Based on the pooled YRBS data and in the fully customized models [recreational marijuana law] Adoption was not associated with current marijuana or frequent marijuana use, ”the study concluded. “In the fully customized models, the introduction of the Medical Marijuana Act (MML) was associated with a 6% decrease in the likelihood of current marijuana use and a 7% decrease (in the likelihood of frequent marijuana use).
In addition, the researchers also found that “the estimates of the association between opening the first recreational pharmacy and marijuana use were qualitatively similar to these numbers,” further reinforcing what a host of other studies have already shown: that the legalization of Cannabis actually caused a decrease in teenage use, not an increase.
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While the study’s authors declined to provide substantiated justification for what might be responsible for this correlation, their work is complemented by an ever-growing research pool that includes a November 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showing that adolescents hospitalized for cannabis-related complaints has decreased by 50%, and Leafly’s own review of 42 key studies in 2019 found in part that teenage use is “nonspecific” [and] generally decreases “in states with legalization.
Study doesn’t say why teenage usage is flat
As for the “why”, the notion that legalized markets are for adults only, as opposed to street markets that sell to children, are compelling factors.
… licensed cannabis sellers in Washington have increased their compliance rate for identity verification from 95% in 2019 to 96% in 2020 …
According to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board on Jan.
(Just for comparison, Washington alcohol salespeople’s compliance rates dropped from 85% to 75%, and tobacco salespeople’s compliance rates dropped from 90% to 75%.)
Whatever the causes, the resistance to legal cannabis to save the teenagers runs counter to empirical reality.
Someone should inform Governor Ricketts that it is prohibition talks these days that are talking about life support.
Zack Ruskin
Zack Ruskin is a freelance cannabis and culture reporter. His other bylines include the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nib, Vanity Fair, California Leaf Magazine, and Variety. Follow him on Twitter: @zackruskin.
View article by Zack Ruskin
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