Teen Marijuana Consumption Continues To Drop Especially Where It's Legal, Go Figure

A decline in young people’s use of marijuana and other controlled substances seems to be a rising trend, as confirmed by yet another government-funded study.

After Michigan’s annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey showed an unprecedented year-over-year decline in 8th-graders, 10th-graders and 12th-graders, Coloradans followed suit.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) Healthy Kids Colorado Survey’s results showed that in 2021 young people were 35% less likely to use marijuana compared to prior years.

The significant drop in use for high school students over the past two years is a part of a broader trend that dates back to 2013 when the department’s biennial survey got underway, cannabis advocates say, attributing it to regulated access for adults that then minimizes the risk of adolescent marijuana use.

According to the CDPHE’s report, only 13% of surveyed students said they’ve used cannabis over the past month, versus almost 20% in 2013.

To that end, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that marijuana legalization laws are not associated with increased use among high school students.

“Consistent with estimates from prior studies, there was little evidence that [recreational marijuana laws] or [medical marijuana laws] encourage youth marijuana use,” reads the paper.

Moreover, a previous paper that used data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) for the period 1993-to 2017 found that marijuana adoption was associated with an 8% decrease in the odds of marijuana use among high school students.

Photo: Courtesy of Eliott Reyna on Unsplash