Teens Just As Likely To Toke Up In Areas With Legalized Medical Marijuana As Areas Without

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A new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health recently found that the legalization of medicinal marijuana has no effect on the rate of marijuana use among adolescents. The study took into account some 20 years of data and 32,750 high school students from states with and without legalized medicinal marijuana use. What they found — about 21% of adolescents will toke up regardless of marijuana’s availability.

You can read about the study here.

When considering the legalization of marijuana for any use, opponents often claim that drug use among teens will increase dramatically if the drug is more available and widely accepted. They argue that by turning it into an accepted drug, more teens are likely to try it. And by making it more accessible, teens are more likely to acquire it. But all they really do is leave space for a black market trade of the drug and, in many cases, make its use look cooler.

The study does not consider the effects of full blown recreational marijuana legalization. However, it does significantly stifle arguments that legalization results is massive swaths of teens taking up the drug. The reality appears to be that the teens that want to will find a way, and the teens that don’t, won’t.

Certainly this is the case in other areas. We’ve found that, regardless of age restrictive tobacco policy and even outright bans on smoking, roughly 20% of teens tend to find a way to smoke. Often, they get cigarettes from off-age friends and family or through tobacco trafficking avenues.

Often, opponents of electronic cigarettes argue that age restrictive bans aren’t enough to keep them away from teens. They want the public to believe that adults must give up access to the product so teens don’t find their way to it. It’s seems likely that this argument is subject to the same failing as that of medicinal marijuana. Ultimately, the teens that will, will, and the teens that won’t, won’t.

I’d be curious to see if the same trend can be found in adolescent populations between areas with minors bans, total bans, and no bans. I’d be willing to bet that there is almost no difference is rates of use. The only real difference will be whether the local government collects taxes on purchases that are going to be made regardless of their blessing.