Legalizing Medical Marijuana Does Not Increase Teen Use
Three separate universities and hospital systems have published survey data that young people’s self reported use of marijuana does not change with the legal use of medical marijuana. In numerous states now people can use medical marijuana legally such as with an medical marijuana card AZ.
The investigative team was comprised of researchers from Boston Medical Center, Brown University in Rhode Island, and Oregon Health Science University, and looked at the adolescent marijuana use trends in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Massachusetts was an excellent control since medical marijuana was not legal in that state. Rhode Island, though, does have legalized medical marijuana and it has been legal since 2006 for numerous conditions.
This survey was not small. It included over thirty two thousand students and found no statistically significant differences existed between the usage of marijuana between the two states in any of the dozen years evaluated. The instrument used in the sample was a self report known as the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System. The twelve years evaluated were between 1997 and 2009.
This research project has been backed up by one that was done at the Texas A&M Health Sciences Center. When medical marijuana was first made legal back in 2006 in Rhode Island, one of the big concerns was whether or not the increased availability and potential appeal would result in higher use. The project displayed that marijuana use was fairly common overall, but it did not vary between the years of whether it was legal or not. Interestingly, multiple states have legalized medicinal cannabis since then such as AZ where one can see a marijuana doctors in Arizona.
The study was funded by a grant from the Rhode Island foundation. There was no funding received from any company or private industry entities. The researchers noted that they will continue to administer the surveys to try and see if adolescent use does change as more and more states legalize marijuana for medical use. Currently 16 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Arizona medical marijuana is one of them. Recent studies have shown that currently over 50% of the United States agrees with complete legalization of marijuana, whereas over 70% agree with legalization of marijuana for medical use.
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Tags: cannabis, drug abuse, marijuana, medical marijuana