The legalization of cannabis, whether medical or recreational, does not increase marijuana use among young peopleIn fact, it could make it decrease.
To annul the prohibitionist declarations, which fervently support the opposite, we report two scientific studies, in particular: the first conducted by theAmerican Medical Association, the largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States and the second largest by Montana State University, among the most prestigious institutions in the Montana university system.
Legalization and consumption among young people: the American Medical Association study
For it scientific study published on Journal of the American Medical Association, the reference magazine of the association itself, the federal data of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, an American survey of adolescent health risks from 1993 to 2019 collected in 10 states.
The researchers said that regulating recreational cannabis “she was not associated to the frequent use of marijuana" and that "the adoption of the law on medical marijuana - however - was associated with a decrease a 6% decrease in the odds of current marijuana use and a 7% decrease in the odds of frequent marijuana use.”
Results that are perfectly intertwined with benefits of cannabis legalization, in fact, take the market away from crime, not only guarantees a quality product, but, by introducing legal channels, access to the substance for younger people is limited.
“This study provides further evidence that cannabis regulation does not result in increased rates of use among adolescents – on the contrary – it suggests that cannabis legalization laws could drive down use among younger people,” he said. Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, al Marijuana Moment. Explaining that "Legal cannabis businesses are required to rigorously check their customers' IDs - instead - The unregulated market, which prohibitionists are actually trying to support, lacks such protections”.
Legalization causes consumption to decline among adolescents
Taking a step back and retracing the scientific literature, there are several pieces of research that already reached the conclusions a few years ago same results. Like it scientific study published on JAMA Pediatrics in 2019, again achieved thanks to the data collected by Youth Risk Behavior Survey, but this time from 1993 to 2017.
The analysis, conducted on the testimony of approximately 1.4 million students who participated in the annual survey, led researchers to conclude that: “Laws legalizing recreational marijuana are associated with a 8% drop of the number of high school students who said they had used marijuana in the last 30 days and a 9% drop in the number of those who claimed to have used it at least 10 times in the last 30 days".
Mark Anderson, associate professor at Montana State University and first author of the research, underlined that: "We found a possible reduction in use following only legalization for commercial purposes. recreational", and not just for medical purposes.
“Our study, compared to previous works, is based on a greater variation in policies, for this reason we consider our estimates as more credible until today,” Anderson finally specified.
