Now, a new study analyzes a host of risky teen behavior, including marijuana consumption. Among the findings of the Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, younger teens are reporting that marijuana is more scarcely available to them now than it was nearly 25 years ago.

At this point, explanations for this trend are theoretical. What we do know, however, is that legalization of marijuana leads to greater regulation. It undercuts the black market, where there are no rules about who can buy marijuana or how much. With those black market outlets shrinking, it puts most of the supply in the hands of regulated dispensaries, which are overseen by the state. The state has very strict rules about who can purchase the drug, how much they can buy – and how old those buyers have to be.

The survey has been conducted every year to 8th graders and 10th graders every year since 1992. Teens in 2016 gave the lowest-ever indication (since the inception of the study) that marijuana was easy to obtain if they wanted it. Less than 35 percent of 8th graders said it would be easy to find marijuana if they wanted it. That’s down 2.4 percent in just a single year. Meanwhile, about 64 percent of 10th graders said marijuana would be easy to get if they wanted it, which is the lowest rate ever.

Meanwhile, high school seniors have been asked this same question since 1975. Of those, 81 percent said marijuana would be fairly easy to get. That sounds like a lot, but that’s actually lower than any other year.

When it came to actual use of drugs among 8th graders, the rate dropped. It was about the same for 12-graders this year as it was last year.

The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse told U.S. News she was somewhat surprised by the findings. Her office had predicted that teen marijuana use would spoke, given that there were lower perceptions of it being dangerous and that legalization would mean it was more readily accessible. But as it turns out, that hasn’t happened. We now have eight states plus the nation’s capital that have legalized recreational marijuana for 21-and-older adults. Plus, more than half of all states now have medical marijuana laws, which all began with California back in 1996.

Interestingly during this time, teen marijuana use rates have either dropped or stayed the same, while adult use of marijuana has gone up.

A spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project pointed to this as clear evidence that the best way to halt teen marijuana use is through regulation and education – not by blocking access to responsible adult consumers and ailing Americans. Yet every time there is a discussion about marijuana prohibition, the issue of teen use and accessibility comes up.

The executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance notes this kind of research just underscores what his organization has been pointing out for some time: That the argument that marijuana legalization hurts children simply has no substance. In fact, the very opposite may be true.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

Marijuana Is Harder Than Ever for Younger Teens to Find, Dec. 13, 2016, By Steven Nelson, U.S. News and World Report

More Blog Entries:

More States Approve Medical Marijuana, DEA Still Refuses to Acknowledge Benefits, Dec. 4, 2016, L.A. Marijuana Lawyer Blog

The CDC just released its latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which monitors six different types of health risk behaviors that cause or contribute to death and disability among teens and young adults. One of those is alcohol and other drugs.

What they found was that the percentage of teens who had ever used marijuana had increased significantly – from 31 percent to 47 percent – from 1991 to 1991. If you’ll recall, 1997 was the year California approved marijuana as medicine, and there was a great deal of fear that California’s law and those adopted in other states would prompt an even bigger spike. But that didn’t happen because from 1997 to 2015, there was a decrease from 47 percent to 38 percent. Specifically when we look at 2013 to 2015, which is when states started passing recreational marijuana laws, the prevalence of teens who used marijuana nationally dropped from 40 percent to 38 percent.

Meanwhile, the percentage of teens currently using cannabis (meaning having consumed marijuana in the last month) also fell from 1995 to 2005, from 25 percent to just under 22 percent.

It should be noted that during this time period, more than two dozen states passed laws that allow patients who qualify the right to consume cannabis. Further, four states plus the District of Columbia passed laws that allow commercial production and retail sale of the drug to adults – with certain restrictions.

These results echo a number of other studies that have reached very similar conclusions about teen drug use. Our L.A. marijuana lawyers know that this remains a sticky issue with many groups that continue to oppose pro-marijuana legislation. But the more research that is conducted, the weaker that argument is.

Just to sample what has already been established about teen marijuana use and marijuana laws:

• A June 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism showed the prevalence of marijuana use disorders among U.S. teens dropped by an estimated 24 percent between 2002 and 2013.
• A May 2016 article published in the journal Adolescent Medicine: Smoking, Substance Abuse and Reproductive Health, showed there was no change in the proportion of Washington state teens who reported easy access to marijuana following the 212 legislation that legalized the drug for recreation.
• A March 2016 study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy that showed that in states that states with medical marijuana laws do not have a differential increase in past-month use of marijuana by teens.
• An August 2014 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health that analyzed a sample of nearly 12 million students and determined no statistical difference in past-month marijuana use before and after policy change in states that had approved pro-marijuana laws.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

CDC: Changes in state marijuana laws associated with declining teen use, June 13, 2016, By Paul Armentano, The Daily Chronic

More Blog Entries:

Supreme Court May Have Just Expanded Unlawful Police Searches, June 27, 2016, California Marijuana Lawyer Blog

But now, the latest research from Colorado – one of the first states to legalize the drug for recreational purposes – is that teen marijuana use has actually DROPPED since the drug became more widely available to the over-21 crowd.

A survey of Colorado high school students regarding their marijuana consumption was part of the biannual poll conducted by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. What’s more, the percentage of high school students who used marijuana in Colorado was actually lower than the national average among their peers.

As The Scientific American reported, high school students in Colorado reported that 21.2 percent had used marijuana in the last 30 days. That was actually down slightly from the 22 percent who said they had done so in 2011 – which was the year before the drug was approved for recreational use by adults. The first state-licensed retail outlets for legal marijuana didn’t actually open until 2014.

Researchers have said the difference is not statistically significant and that the rates of current and lifetime use of the drug has remained “stable” for the last 11 years.

Nationally, the rate of marijuana use among high school teens is at 21.7 percent. The state health department flatly asserts there has been no increase, and 4 out of 5 high school students in Colorado said they don’t use pot at all, even on occasion.

The voluntary survey, conducted every two years, questioned about 17,000 students.

In addition to Colorado, approval for recreational marijuana sales and possession has been handed down in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Colorado was the first to establish retail shops selling marijuana two years ago. As of this writing, six additional states are considering similar proposals.

Mason Tvert, a representative of the Marijuana Policy Project, said these numbers obviously counter the theory that legal marijuana for adults inevitably results in an uptick in teen use.

Still, there are naysayers. For example, a representative of SMART Colorado pointed out that nearly half of the Colorado students polled did not view marijuana use as risky behavior. She stressed that marijuana use as a youth can have lifelong implications, and most research is based on use of marijuana with a lower THC potency than is available on the commercial market.

It’s perhaps a valid point, but our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers would point out the reason teens probably don’t see it as all that risky may have less to do with the fact that it’s available for commercial sales than the fact that it’s used as medicine. Their chronically ill grandmother, their seizure-prone young cousin, their anxiety-filled uncle – these individuals all rely on marijuana to ease their symptoms and help them through difficult illnesses. Few are going to see this scenario as risky.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

Colorado’s Teen Marijuana Usage Dips After Legalization, June 21, 2016, Reuters

More Blog Entries:

Perris Approves Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative, June 21, 2016, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog