No change in teen pot use after medical marijuana passage?

~ Jason Schwartz

From the Washington Post:

mj

The chart above shows the trend in teen marijuana use, as measured by state Youth Risky Behavior Surveys, in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Vermont. The x-axis is standardized to track the three-year periods before and after each state passed its medical marijuana law. The lines are essentially flat.

I asked study co-author Daniel Rees if there were any significant changes within individual states. He told me that “no single state stood out — the effect of massing a medical marijuana law on youth consumption appears to be zero across the board.” These results are consistent with earlier research showing little change in youth pot consumption in Los Angeles after marijuana dispensaries opened there.

I’ll be interested to see what kind of responses this study gets.

It will also be interesting to see the effect of legalization in Colorado and Washington on pot consumption.

Published by Jason Schwartz

I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work. Views expressed here are my own. Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.