Is Cannabis Legalization Associated With Declining Obesity Rates? Here's What One Study Found

According to data published in the journal Health Economics, US states with legal marijuana sales "may experience a decrease in state-level obesity rates."

A NORML report showed that researchers affiliated with North Dakota State University “compared obesity rates in Washington state following legalization to those of a synthetic control state."

The study “Assessing the impact of recreational marijuana legalization on obesity,” noted that researchers “examine this relationship by using a synthetic control approach to examine the impact of legalized recreational marijuana access on obesity rates by comparing Washington State to a synthetically constructed counterfactual.”

“We find that recreational marijuana's introduction did not lead to increased obesity rates and may have led to decreases in obesity,” they continued.

“As more states gravitate to decriminalization, expanded medicinal use, and legalized recreational use of marijuana, our findings provide important insights into contemporary drug policy,” the authors concluded.

In addition, some case-control studies have reported that folks with a history of cannabis use are "less likely than abstainers to be obese or have type 2 diabetes." Studies also previously linked marijuana use to higher rates of physical activity.
According to the World Health Organization, obesity has nearly doubled in the last three decades. In the United States, obesity has tripled in children since the 1970s and continues to rise. Based on report estimates by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention, one in five children of standard school age are obese.

Cannabis As A Lifestyle

Research conducted by San Francisco-based cannabis delivery platform Eaze found an increasing crossover between cannabis use and off-the-couch activities including work, fitness and intimacy, reported Adweek.

“It may sound counterintuitive, but cannabis for responsible adults does exist,” said Elizabeth Ashford, vice president of communications at Eaze. “We’re seeing the integration of cannabis into parts of life where we previously didn’t see it. It’s not about waking up and hitting a bong,” Ashford told Adweek. “Some people may take a 2-milligram Sativa edible like someone else would drink espresso in the morning.”

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