The legalization of weed has contributed to a decline in tobacco use

A study published in the Journal of Health Economics addresses the issue of tobacco use in the wake of cannabis legalization. Titled “Have Recreational Marijuana Laws Undermined Public Health Advances in Adult Tobacco Use?” Researchers found that cannabis reform has led to a decline in tobacco use in individual states. The study was conducted by Bentley University, San Diego State University and Georgia State University. “This study is the first to comprehensively examine the impact of recreational marijuana legalization on adult tobacco use,” the authors said.

In their study, researchers reveal three key findings. First, the “first tier” results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) “show consistent evidence that RML [recreational marijuana laws] Adoption increases adult marijuana use by 2 to 5 percentage points, including from e-cigarettes.”

Second, the authors state that they “find no evidence that legalization of recreational marijuana increases tobacco use among adults.” Finally, “The adoption of RML, accompanied by the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries, is associated with a larger increase in ENDS [electronic nicotine delivery system] Use as RML rollout without open pharmacies.”

Finally, the authors wrote that the increased number of recreational pharmacies “is an important supply channel to explain substitution between marijuana and tobacco in adults.”

However, they conclude that the rise of cannabis has prompted cautionary tales from health experts calling for more research. One of their main concerns is that the rise in cannabis smoking could lead to an unintended “smoking renormalization” that could potentially set back existing tobacco control policies.

The Surgeon General’s 1964 report is known for linking tobacco use to lung cancer and finding that cigarette smoking was “responsible for a 70 percent increase in the death rate of smokers over nonsmokers,” according to the National Library of Medicine. According to Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, the report “hit the country like a bomb. It was front-page news and a lead story on every radio and television station in the United States and many abroad.”

Almost 60 years later, tobacco use has fallen sharply. The authors found that tobacco use declined earlier in states with legalization of recreational cannabis than in states without. “The results support the hypothesis that tobacco use declined in several of the first states, particularly Colorado and Washington, which are also the states where marijuana use increased the most after the RML went into effect,” the authors concluded.

The authors also noted that the reduction in tobacco use “is consistent with the hypothesis that recreational marijuana and tobacco may be substitutes for some adults.”

In February, California lawmakers introduced a bill that would ban the sale of tobacco to those born after 2006 in a bid to end tobacco use and tobacco addiction. However, major tobacco industry executives continue to look for new ways to enter the cannabis industry. One of the world’s largest tobacco groups, British American Tobacco (BAT), announced last September that it would buy a Germany-based cannabis company called Sanity Group GmbH. “We continue to transform our business by better understanding our current and future consumers as part of our goal of A Better Tomorrow,” said Kingsley Wheaton, BAT’s chief growth officer, last year.

Data from other studies still show evidence that tobacco use is continuing to decline. A May 2022 study found that the legalization of cannabis has contributed to a decrease in alcohol and cigarette consumption. Another study from July 2022 shows that cannabis use is much more supported by Australians than tobacco use, and a Gallup poll released a month later in August 2022 also showed that Americans smoke more cannabis than cigarettes.