Picture GettyAnti-drug activists have always argued that legalising weed will mean that teenagers blaze it up all day – and might succumb to the deadly ‘reefer madness’.

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But guess what? That turns out not to be true.

As 29 American states have decriminalised weed, with eight fully legalising it for recreational use, not one state has seen a rise in marijuana use.


In fact, Colorado, one of the first states to legalise cannabis, has seen teenage use drop to 9%, the lowest level in a decade.

Across America levels of teenage marijuana use have dropped to 20-year-lows, according to Psychology Today.

There’s a reason for that – and it’s all to do with teenage psychology, says Nathan Lents of the City University of New York.



Lents says that the drop isn’t a blip – it’s to do with making the drug seem less ‘dangerous’, and thus less attractive to teenagers.

Lents says, ‘This is no quirk, nor is it just too early to see the inevitable spike in teen drug use. The spike was never going to happen.

‘When marijuana is legalized and society acknowledges that the drug can be enjoyed safely… it undercuts the stigma of danger that is so attractive to teenagers desperate to prove themselves to their peers.

‘When marijuana use is legal and safe, decision-making about it among teenagers follows a more predictable, adult-like pattern.’