Youth marijuana use “decreased considerably” in 2021, as did teen consumption of illicit substances general, in accordance with a federally funded survey that was launched on Wednesday. That’s even though extra state hashish legalization legal guidelines are being enacted and applied throughout the nation.
The Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, which has been monitoring adolescent drug conduct and attitudes since 1975, revealed a big drop in past-year hashish use amongst eighth, tenth and twelfth graders this yr.
And whereas the coronavirus pandemic restricted social interplay in a approach that probably contributed to the abrupt dip, the brand new information offers extra proof supporting the argument that legalizing marijuana for adults doesn’t result in elevated underage utilization.
Right here’s how past-year hashish use modified for every age class from 2020 to 2021:
eighth graders: 7.1% reported utilizing marijuana up to now yr in 2021, in comparison with 11.4% in 2020
tenth graders: 17.3% reported utilizing marijuana up to now yr in 2021, in comparison with 28.0% in 2020
twelfth graders: 30.5% reported utilizing marijuana up to now yr in 2021, in comparison with 35.2% in 2020
Lifetime, 30-day and day by day hashish use amongst adolescents equally dropped this yr.
Using alcohol, nicotine vaping and all different illicit medication additionally “decreased considerably,” the survey, funded by the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and carried out by researchers on the College of Michigan, discovered.
The drop in past-year hashish use is notably steeper in comparison with consumption of all different illicit medication.
“We’ve by no means seen such dramatic decreases in drug use amongst teenagers in only a one-year interval. These information are unprecedented and spotlight one surprising potential consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought about seismic shifts within the day-to-day lives of adolescents,” NIDA Director Nora Volkow said in a press launch.
“Transferring ahead, will probably be essential to establish the pivotal parts of this previous yr that contributed to decreased drug use—whether or not associated to drug availability, household involvement, variations in peer strain, or different components—and harness them to tell future prevention efforts,” she stated.
The survey, which concerned self-reporting by 32,260 college students throughout 319 faculties from February to June, is one other instance of how the prohibitionist narrative that marijuana legalization would enhance youth use isn’t holding water.
“These newest findings add to the rising physique of scientific literature exhibiting that marijuana regulation insurance policies will be applied in a fashion that gives entry for adults whereas concurrently limiting youth entry and misuse,” Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, said in a press launch.
The 2020 MTF survey additionally discovered that hashish consumption amongst adolescents “didn’t considerably change in any of the three grades for lifetime use, previous 12-month use, previous 30-day use, and day by day use from 2019-2020.”
One other federally funded research, the Nationwide Survey on Drug Use and Well being (NSDUH), was launched in October exhibiting that youth marijuana use dropped in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and as extra states moved to enact legalization.
Additional, an evaluation printed by the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation in September discovered that enacting legalization has an general influence on adolescent hashish consumption that’s “statistically indistinguishable from zero.”
The truth is, plainly establishing sure regulated hashish fashions would possibly truly result in decrease marijuana use amongst adolescents below sure measures.
Volkow herself additionally conceded in a current interview that legalization has not led to elevated youth use regardless of her prior fears. A federal report launched in Might also challenged the prohibitionist narrative round below marijuana consumption.
With respect to this newest MTF survey, White Home Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage (ONDCP) Director Rahul Gupta stated that the “Biden-Harris Administration is dedicated to utilizing information and proof to information our prevention efforts so you will need to establish all of the components that will have led to this lower in substance use to higher inform prevention methods transferring ahead.”
“The Administration is investing historic ranges of funding for evidence-based prevention packages as a result of delaying substance use till after adolescence considerably reduces the chance of growing a substance use dysfunction,” he stated.
The U.S. Division of Training’s Nationwide Heart for Training Statistics additionally analyzed youth surveys of highschool college students from 2009 to 2019 and concluded that there’s been “no measurable distinction” within the proportion of these in grades 9-12 who reported consuming hashish a minimum of as soon as up to now 30 days.
In a separate, earlier evaluation, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention discovered that marijuana consumption amongst highschool college students declined through the peak years of state-legal leisure hashish legalization.
There was “no change” within the charge of present hashish use amongst highschool college students from 2009-2019, the survey discovered. When analyzed utilizing a quadratic change mannequin, nonetheless, lifetime marijuana consumption decreased throughout that interval.
One other research launched by Colorado officers final yr confirmed that youth hashish consumption within the state “has not considerably modified since legalization” in 2012, although strategies of consumption are diversifying.
An official with ONDCP’s Nationwide Marijuana Initiative went even additional final yr, admitting that, for causes which might be unclear, youth consumption of hashish “goes down” in Colorado and different legalized states and that it’s “an excellent factor” even when “we don’t perceive why.”