Legalizing Medical Marijuana Doesn't Raise Teen Pot Use, Study Says

U.S News and World Report ^ | April 25, 2014 | Robert Preidt

[Ken H]

FRIDAY, April 25, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- American teens' use of marijuana doesn't increase when states approve the drug for medical use, a new study finds.

"Any time a state considers legalizing medical marijuana, there are concerns from the public about an increase in drug use among teens," principal investigator Dr. Esther Choo, an attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, said in a hospital news release.

Choo's team examined 20 years of data from states that do and don't permit medical marijuana use. They found that legalizing medical marijuana did not lead to increased illicit pot use by high school students.

The data showed that nearly 21 percent of teens had used marijuana in the past month, but there were no significant differences in pot use before and after a state legalized medical marijuana, according to the study released online April 15 in advance of print publication in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

She said the findings add "to a growing body of literature published over the past three years that is remarkably consistent in demonstrating that state medical marijuana policies do not have a downstream effect on adolescent drug use, as we feared they might."

[lee martell]

“Oh no, there is no proven link to habitual marijuana use at all!” Yeah, right. Like I’m going to believe Dr. CHOOM over what is very obviously happening.

[newnhdad]

Yea, since we have like three years we can say without a shadow of a doubt that “medicinal” pot does not have any effect on illegal use... but the cases of glaucoma, anxiety and other rare pain disorders have skyrocketed to near epidemic proportions in a once healthy population for some inexplicable reason along with sales of nachos, tacos and subs from 7-11.

[dhs12345]

I am pretty certain that they can't smoke it in public. That would be breaking the law.

BTW a person is not allowed to drink alcohol on the streets.

Also, it okay with me as long as it doesn't infringe on my rights. That is the other half of so called “freedom” that Libertarians seem to forget sometimes -- it is okay long as their actions don't infringe on other's rights.

Anyway, I wouldn't take my family to an area that “reeked” of pot smoke. And if it is against the law, then I'd expect arrests.

[NonValueAdded]

No, just fourth graders ... I call BS. Medical maryjane has been around for a long time. And I mean medical as in tightly controlled, DEA scrutiny, the whole WOD thing. The Florida ballot initiative is just rehashed (NOI) Colorado BS because there already is medical marijuana in Florida via the pharmacy. The intent of the proposed law is to set ridiculously lax prescribing guidelines. I’m willing to bet the study did not differentiate between old rule prescribed mj and post-ballot initiative pervasive availability.

[Hugin]

Since they’re talking about medical marijuana, in California it’s been almost 20 years, since 1996. Don’t know about other states.

[Lizavetta]

But fewer gun laws DO lead to more gun use.

The pretzels these stupid libs twist themselves into...

[yoe]

Makes sense.....

[Ken H]

From the Journal of Adolescent Health =>

The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Legislation on Adolescent Marijuana Use

15 April 2014.

-snip-

Results

The estimation sample was 11,703,100 students. Across years and states, past-month marijuana use was common (20.9%, 95% confidence interval 20.3–21.4). There were no statistically significant differences in marijuana use before and after policy change for any state pairing.

In the regression analysis, we did not find an overall increased probability of marijuana use related to the policy change (marginal probability .007, 95% confidence interval −.007, .02).

Conclusions

This study did not find increases in adolescent marijuana use related to legalization of medical marijuana.

http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(14)00107-4/abstract