Teen marijuana use declined from 2019 to 2021—and hit a report low since 2011—in line with a federal biennial report that was launched on Monday. The declines in hashish consumption by younger individuals come as a rising variety of states are legalizing it for adults—opposite to fears lengthy expressed by opponents of the coverage change.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Danger Habits Survey (YRBS) confirmed that 16 % of highschool college students reported previous 30-day hashish use in 2021, in comparison with 22 % in 2019.
JUST RELEASED: The CDC Youth Danger Habits Survey (YRBS) Knowledge Abstract & Developments Report: 2011–2021 is now accessible. It gives a primary take a look at key #CDCYRBS knowledge and features a decade of adolescent well being developments. Learn the report: https://t.co/UV6ypYquex pic.twitter.com/UASFBP38x8
— CDC’s Division of Adolescent and College Well being (@CDC_DASH) February 13, 2023
The proportion of scholars who use marijuana has usually hovered within the low 20s for the previous decade, in line with the YRBS outcomes. Use of different substances like alcohol and prescription opioids can be trending within the “proper course,” CDC stated.
Through CDC.
Curiously, whereas total youth hashish use has declined, the survey discovered that “the proportion of feminine college students who at the moment used marijuana didn’t change.”
CDC discovered that 14 % of male highschool college students used hashish up to now 30 days in 2021—down from a excessive of 26 % in 2011. For feminine highschool college students, that share nonetheless declined, however much less dramatically, from 20 % to 18 % throughout the identical timeframe.
The primary states began legalizing adult-use marijuana in 2012, with business gross sales starting in 2014.
Through CDC.
“Feminine college students had been extra seemingly than male college students to at the moment use marijuana. Black college students had been extra seemingly than Asian, Hispanic, and White college students to at the moment use marijuana,” the company said. “LGBQ+ college students and college students with any same-sex companions had been extra seemingly than their friends to at the moment use marijuana.”
Different surveys have recognized related developments in youth hashish consumption, at the same time as extra states transfer to legalize marijuana.
Advocates have maintained that creating techniques the place marijuana is regulated and insurance policies like ID verification are enforced would have this impact, although it ought to be famous that the numerous drop in 2021 could also be partly attributable to the coronavirus pandemic that socially remoted many college students and left them at house with their mother and father.
That stated, the longer-term pattern appears to be persisting, with the newest funded Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey that was launched in December displaying teen hashish use remaining secure in 2022 at the same time as many pandemic restrictions had been lifted.
However whereas it is likely to be considerably stunning that younger marijuana use didn’t improve after these had been lifted as some anticipated, the final discovering that teen consumption is secure is in line with a rising physique of scientific literature on the subject.
Final yr, for instance, one other Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse- (NIDA) funded research that was printed within the American Journal of Preventive Medication discovered that state-level hashish legalization is just not related to elevated youth use.
The research demonstrated that “youth who spent extra of their adolescence below legalization had been no roughly prone to have used hashish at age 15 years than adolescents who spent little or no time below legalization.”
Yet one more federally funded research from Michigan State College researchers that was printed within the journal PLOS One final summer time discovered that “hashish retail gross sales is likely to be adopted by the elevated prevalence of hashish onsets for older adults” in authorized states, “however not for underage individuals who can not purchase hashish merchandise in a retail outlet.”
In the meantime, adolescent marijuana use in Colorado declined considerably in 2021, in line with the newest model of a biennial state survey launched final yr.
A research out of California final yr discovered that “there was 100% compliance with the ID coverage to maintain underage patrons from buying marijuana immediately from licensed retailers.”
The Coalition for Hashish Coverage, Schooling, and Regulation (CPEAR), an alcohol and tobacco industry-backed marijuana coverage group, additionally launched a report final yr analyzing knowledge on youth marijuana use charges amid the state-level legalization motion.
One other federally funded research, the Nationwide Survey on Drug Use and Well being (NSDUH), was launched in October displaying 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 2021 yr discovered that enacting legalization has an total influence on adolescent hashish consumption that’s “statistically indistinguishable from zero.”
The U.S. Division of Schooling’s Nationwide Heart for Schooling Statistics additionally analyzed youth surveys of highschool college students from 2009 to 2019 and concluded that there’s been “no measurable distinction” within the share of these in grades 9-12 who reported consuming hashish not less than as soon as up to now 30 days.
There was “no change” within the charge of present hashish use amongst highschool college students from 2009-2019, an earlier CDC survey discovered. When analyzed utilizing a quadratic change mannequin, nevertheless, lifetime marijuana consumption decreased throughout that interval.
One other research launched by Colorado officers in 2020 confirmed that youth hashish consumption within the state “has not considerably modified since legalization” in 2012, although strategies of consumption are diversifying.
Photograph courtesy of Chris Wallis // Aspect Pocket Photos.
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