Authors of a new research letter published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Wednesday said there\u2019s no evidence that states\u2019 adoption of laws to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults have led to an increase in youth use of cannabis.<\/p>\n
To arrive at the results, researchers at Montana State University and San Diego State University took responses from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), which asks high-school students about various health-related activities, the report explains. All told, the four-author team analyzed results from 207,781 respondents.<\/p>\n
Findings showed that states\u2019 adoption of recreational marijuana laws (RMLs) had no association with the prevalence of youth cannabis consumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this repeated cross-sectional study, there was no evidence that RMLs were associated with encouraging youth marijuana use,\u201d the two-page paper published in JAMA Psychiatry says. \u201cAfter legalization, there was no evidence of an increase in marijuana use.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nLegalization \u201cadoption was not associated with current marijuana use or frequent marijuana use.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Nor did the opening of marijuana retail stores seem to impact youth use. \u201cEstimates based on the state YRBS and estimates of the association between the first dispensary opening and marijuana use were qualitatively similar,\u201d the team wrote.<\/p>\n
Authors wrote that, in their study, \u201cmore policy variation was captured than in any prior study on RMLs and youth marijuana use.\u201d Pre- and post-legalization data were available for 12 states, and nine contributed data from before and after retail sales began. Data also included 36 states without adult-use cannabis laws.<\/p>\n
The data<\/a> come on the heels of another JAMA-published study earlier this month that found that neither legalization nor the opening of retail stores led to increases in youth cannabis use<\/a>.<\/p>\n
That study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, concluded that the reforms were actually associated with more young people reporting not<\/em>\u00a0using marijuana, along with increases in those who say they don\u2019t use alcohol or vape products either.<\/p>\n
Passage of recreational cannabis laws (RCL) \u201cwas not associated with adolescents\u2019 likelihood or frequency of cannabis use,\u201d found the analysis, by researchers at Boston College and the University of Maryland at College Park. Nor was the opening of retail stores associated with increases in youth use.<\/p>\n
Over time, that study suggested, adult-use marijuana laws in fact led to lower<\/em> odds of any cannabis use. \u201cEach additional year of RCL,\u201d it says, \u201cwas associated with 8% higher odds of zero cannabis use (lower likelihood of any use), with non-significant total estimates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cResults,\u201d that study concluded, \u201csuggest that legalization and greater control over cannabis markets have not facilitated adolescents\u2019 entry into substance use.\u201d<\/p>\n
The subject of youth use has been a contentious topic as more states consider legalizing marijuana, with opponents and supporters of the reform often disagreeing on how to interpret results of various studies, especially in light of the sometimes mixed results in the latest JAMA paper and others.<\/p>\n
Recently released data from a\u00a0Washington State survey of adolescent and teenage students<\/a>\u00a0found overall declines in both lifetime and past-30-day marijuana use since legalizations, with striking drops in recent years that held steady through 2023. The results also indicate that perceived ease of access to cannabis among underage students has generally fallen since the state enacted legalization for adults in 2012.<\/p>\n
A separate study late last year also found that Canadian high-school students reported\u00a0it was more difficult to access marijuana since the government legalized the drug nationwide<\/a>\u00a0in 2019. The prevalence of current cannabis use also fell during the study period, from 12.7 percent in 2018\u201319 to 7.5 percent in 2020\u201321, even as retail sales of marijuana expanded across the country.<\/p>\n
In December, meanwhile, a U.S. health official said that teen marijuana use has not increased\u00a0\u201ceven as state legalization has proliferated across the country.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been no substantial increases at all,\u201d said Marsha Lopez, chief of the National Institute on Drug Abuse\u2019s (NIDA) epidemiological research branch. \u201cIn fact, they have not reported an increase in perceived availability either, which is kind of interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another earlier analysis from CDC found that\u00a0rates of current and lifetime cannabis use among high school students<\/a>\u00a0have continued to drop amid the legalization movement.<\/p>\n
A study of high school students in Massachusetts that was published last November found that\u00a0youth in that state were no more likely to use marijuana after legalization<\/a>, though more students perceived their parents as cannabis consumers after the policy change.<\/p>\n
A separate NIDA-funded study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2022 also found that state-level\u00a0cannabis legalization was not associated with increased youth use<\/a>. The study demonstrated that \u201cyouth who spent more of their adolescence under legalization were no more or less likely to have used cannabis at age 15 years than adolescents who spent little or no time under legalization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet another 2022 study from Michigan State University researchers,\u00a0published in the journal PLOS One<\/a>, found that \u201ccannabis retail sales might be followed by the increased occurrence of cannabis onsets for older adults\u201d in legal states, \u201cbut not for underage persons who cannot buy cannabis products in a retail outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trends were observed despite\u00a0adult use of marijuana and certain psychedelics reaching \u201chistoric highs\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in 2022, according to separate data released last year.<\/p>\n
\nFeds Consider Removing MDMA From Workplace Drug Testing While Adding Fentanyl Instead<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
The post \u2018No Evidence\u2019 That Marijuana Legalization For Adults Increases Youth Cannabis Use, New Research Published By American Medical Association Finds<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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