A major national survey has found people under 18 are using marijuana at the lowest rate since 1994 — welcome news to legalization supporters facing a setback in Congress and a potential threat from the executive branch.

Hours before the results were posted online, House leaders blocked a floor vote on an amendment adopted since 2014 protecting state medical pot programs — as requested by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a cannabis reform foe re-entering President Trump's good graces after strained summer relations.



The results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health show 6.5 percent of Americans ages 12-17 used marijuana in the past month in 2016, as compared with 7 percent in 2015 and 7.4 percent in 2014, the year the nation's first recreational pot stores opened in Colorado and Washington.

To legalization supporters, the data undercut possible justifications for a federal crackdown.

"This goes to show that taking marijuana out of the criminal market and putting it behind a regulated counter is the best approach to serve the public health interests of our communities," said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. "After all, licensed businesses have an incentive to check IDs; illegal drug dealers do not."

Roger Stone, the longtime Republican strategist and informal adviser to President Trump, said it disproves "the idea that we were going to have an epidemic and that 90 percent of millennials were going to be using marijuana if it was legal."



Stone declined to say how often he speaks with Trump, but said he helped craft the president's campaign position and they have discussed the issue. He said he's confident Trump retains his campaign-trail support for state autonomy.

"I have every reason to believe the president will stand by his pledge to let the states decide," Stone said. He added: "In the wake of two hurricanes, and the North Korean threat and DACA, it doesn't seem as important — I don't think it's front-burner issue for the administration."

Eight states have laws allowing regulated recreational pot markets for adults 21 and older. And more than half of states allow medical pot — even though pot possession for any reason outside approved research remains a federal crime.

State-regulated cannabis ballooned into a multibillion-dollar industry under the Obama administration after the Justice Department said it would not interfere with state pot programs so long as enforcement triggers — such as increased underage use — were not tripped.

A Justice Department committee reviewed federal marijuana policy earlier this year, but ultimately recommended only further study, leaving in place the foundational 2013 Cole Memo.

The new survey results show national adult use of marijuana has gradually increased, but that prevalence of dependence-related marijuana use disorder has been stable among all age groups.

"These survey results demolish the myth that rolling back marijuana prohibition laws will inevitably result in more addiction and teen use," said Mason Tvert, a co-director of Colorado's 2012 legalization campaign who now works at the government relations and public affairs firm VS Strategies.



Tvert said increased adult use indicates more people are using marijuana as a substitute for alcohol, which he views as a good thing.

The new NSDUH data showing lower teen use — released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — are consistent with results from other large national surveys, including the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Monitoring the Future survey, which also show stable or declining pot use among minors.

State-specific data from the 2016 NSDUH won't be available until December, so it's not yet possible to evaluate the latest from pioneering legalization states. However, information released for the previous year on Colorado and Washington show use consistent with historical rates.

Some opponents of legalization argue, however, that without legalization use rates would be dropping even more significantly and say there are worrying details buried within hundreds of charts.

"If it wasn't for marijuana, drug use overall in this country would be down," said Kevin Sabet, a former presidential drug policy adviser who leads the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

"As for adolescents, we have to wait for the state estimates to have the discussion about legalization," he said.

Sabet said it should be concerning that NSDUH results show a one-year jump of more than 3 percent in marijuana use among unemployed adults 18 and older.

The decision by House leadership to block a floor vote on the medical marijuana-protecting amendment offered by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., has infuriated reform advocates, even though it may still be incorporated into a spending deal by a bicameral conference committee.

As an apparent low administration priority, it's unclear what the future holds for state-legal marijuana. Stone said he's not sure who inside the White House may press for a more lenient stance but that he imagines first daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner would be sympathetic to the views of their age group, which polls suggest largely backs legalization.

"If Sessions were to revoke the [Cole Memo] and begin criminal prosecutions in states the have legalization, I think the president would not react well," Stone added.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a supporter of state autonomy, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that he doesn't necessarily see Sessions — whose potential summer ouster prompted one legalization group to plan for an actual party — as a villain, even if he personally disagrees with him.

"People's displeasure with Sessions' position on marijuana is misplaced — it's not his job to legalize marijuana or to let states decide, that's Congress' job," Massie said, adding: "I'm not advocating this, but if they were to strictly enforce the [federal] marijuana laws, I think they would be repealed within a year."