![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-18-at-17.01.10-1024x534-2.png\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
A newly published study tracks what it calls a \u201csignificant decrease\u201d in youth marijuana use from 2011 to 2021\u2014a period in which more than a dozen states legalized marijuana for adults\u2014detailing lower rates of both lifetime and past-month use by high-school students nationwide.<\/p>\n
The findings run contrary to claims from legalization opponents who said the policy change\u2014first enacted in Colorado and Washington State in 2012\u2014would lead to skyrocketing cannabis consumption by teens.<\/p>\n
In 2021, says the study, published this month in the journal Pediatric Reports, 39.9 percent of adolescents reported ever having tried marijuana. As of 2021, that number had fallen to 27.8 percent. The share who said they consumed cannabis at least once in the past month, meanwhile, fell from 23.1 percent in 2011 to 15.8 percent in 2021.<\/p>\n
Drawing on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey\u2014which polls ninth through 12th graders on various health-related behaviors\u2014the new analysis also found that proportion of young people who reported trying cannabis before age 13 also fell markedly during the study period, dropping from 8.1 percent in 2011 to 4.9 percent in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe significant decreases observed in both the \u2018ever used marijuana\u2019 and \u2018currently use marijuana\u2019 categories highlight a promising reduction in adolescent marijuana use, with usage dropping to approximately 70% of the levels recorded in 2011,\u201d the report says. \u201cSimilarly, the percentage of adolescents who tried marijuana before age 13 decreased to about 60% of the 2011 levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the long-term declines, the decade saw at least some ups and downs in teen use rates, including a slight rise in 2019 followed by a rapid slowdown in following years, noted the report\u2019s authors, from Florida Atlantic University medical school.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, from 2011 to 2013, we observed an increase in use for all these behaviors,\u201d they wrote, \u201ca decline from 2015 to 2017 with a slight peak in 2019 (except for tried marijuana before age 13 which continued to decline), and a rapid decrease in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-18-at-17.01.10-1024x534-1.png\")
<\/p>\nYang et al. \/ Pediatric Reports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The declines came as marijuana use by adults climbed to \u201chistoric highs,\u201d according to a federally funded report published last year<\/a>. That report found that teen use rates, however, were for the most part stable.<\/p>\n Despite the declines across races, genders and grade levels, authors highlighted trends they said raise concerns, such as the fact that more girls than boys reported consuming marijuana in 2021, reversing a longtime trend of boys reporting higher use rates.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most significant findings of this study is the shift in marijuana use trends by gender, with girls surpassing boys in reported marijuana use by 2021,\u201d the paper says, suggesting higher use among girls \u201ccould be attributed to evolving social dynamics, including more integrated friend groups where girls may experience greater exposure to marijuana offers from male peers.\u201d<\/p>\n But while girls\u2019 use rates were higher than boys\u2019 in 2021, that year also saw the lowest use rates among both genders of any year of the study period.<\/p>\n Yang et al. \/ Pediatric Reports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One persistent disparity the report highlights is consistently different use rates by students\u2019 race. While all groups saw declines from 2011 to 2021, racial differences were evident throughout.<\/p>\n \u201cConcerning race\/ethnicity, a decline in marijuana use was observed across all racial\/ethnic groups between 2011 and 2021,\u201d authors observed. \u201cIn 2021, however, the proportion of Black adolescents reporting marijuana use was higher (20.5%) when compared to White (14.8%), Hispanic (16.7%), or Asian (5.1%) adolescents. This was also true for all of the other years except for 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Yang et al. \/ Pediatric Reports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report also shows that marijuana use rates increase with grade level, suggesting more students are trying and using cannabis as they get older.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we found a net decline in the percentage of marijuana use among students between 2011 and 2021 for all grade levels,\u201d authors wrote, \u201cthere was consistently higher usage for older grades throughout all years, especially among 12th graders. The consistent observation that 12th graders have the highest rates of marijuana use across all survey years suggests that older adolescents may have greater access to marijuana, possibly due to more developed peer networks and increased independence.\u201d<\/p>\n Yang et al. \/ Pediatric Reports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Authors of the report<\/a> were cautious to cheer the survey results, emphasizing that further public health measures are needed to mitigate the risks of underage drug use.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the overall decrease in US high school adolescent\u2019s marijuana usage from 2011 to 2021 is encouraging, it is crucial to sustain and build on these gains through continued public health efforts,\u201d the paper says. \u201cBehavioral interventions that promote positive connections within school and family environments are essential in mitigating the risk of marijuana use.\u201d<\/p>\n Further, despite the paper\u2019s study period overlapping a time of numerous U.S. states legalizing marijuana for adults, authors warn that the end of prohibition could potentially increase teen use.<\/p>\n \u201cAs more states continue to legalize recreational marijuana, the accessibility and perceived normalcy of the drug may increase, particularly for adolescents who may view its legal status as an indication of safety or acceptability,\u201d authors wrote. \u201cMarijuana legalization can influence adolescent behavior through reduced risk perception and increased availability, which may counteract efforts to reduce use in this vulnerable population.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s counter to data from at least some jurisdictions showing that perceived ease of access has actually fallen among teens since legalization.<\/p>\n In Washington State, for example\u2014the second state in the country to launch an adult-use marijuana market\u2014data from a recent survey of adolescent and teenage students<\/a> found that perceived ease of access to cannabis among underage students has generally dropped since the state enacted legalization for adults in 2012. That survey also showed overall declines in both lifetime and past-30-day marijuana use since legalization, with striking drops in recent years that held steady through 2023.<\/p>\n A separate 2018 survey, however, did suggest that fewer teens perceived occasional or frequent cannabis use to be harmful<\/a>, even though underage use rates had not increased.<\/p>\n Data from CDC\u2019s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, meanwhile, was released earlier this year. The updated numbers show a continued decline in the proportion of high-school students reporting past-month marijuana use over the past decade<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another federal report published this summer concluded that cannabis consumption among minors\u2014defined as people 12 to 20 years of age\u2014fell slightly between 2022 and 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n And despite methodological changes in recent years that make comparisons difficult over time, that report similarly suggested that youth use had fallen significantly in the past decade, as dozens of states have legalized marijuana for adult or medical use. The percentage of young people aged 12 to 17 who\u2019ve ever tried marijuana dropped 18 percent from 2014, when the first legal recreational cannabis sales in the U.S. launched, to 2023. Past-year and past-month rates among young people also declined during that time period.<\/p>\n Separately, a research letter published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in April 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<\/a>\u00a0of cannabis.<\/p>\n Another JAMA-published study earlier that month that similarly found that\u00a0neither legalization nor the opening of retail stores led to increases in youth cannabis use<\/a>.<\/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 Kamala Harris Says Taking Cannabis Gummies Is Not Part Of Her Stress Management Routine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Teen Marijuana Use Dropped In U.S. As States Enacted Legalization, New Study Using Federal Data Shows<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A newly published study tracks what it calls a \u201csignificant decrease\u201d in youth marijuana use from 2011 to 2021\u2014a period in which more than a dozen states legalized marijuana for adults\u2014detailing lower rates of both lifetime and past-month use by high-school students nationwide. The findings run contrary to claims fromContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":78559,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,15462],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78560,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78558\/revisions\/78560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-18-at-17.16.51-1024x575-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-18-at-17.22.27-1024x589-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-18-at-17.26.01-1024x604-1.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
\nRead More: Teen Marijuana Use Dropped In U.S. As States Enacted Legalization, New Study Using Federal Data Shows<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"