Politics
Youth Marijuana Use Hasn’t Increased In States That Legalize, And Most Actually See Significant Declines, Analysis Of Government Data Shows
Youth marijuana use declined in 19 out of 21 states that legalized adult-use marijuana—with teen cannabis consumption down an average of 35 percent in the first states to legalize a decade ago—according to government data compiled by a leading advocacy group.
The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) report analyzed multiple studies on how state cannabis laws influence youth use trends, including several led by federal agencies. The group found that the “data is unequivocal,” Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at MPP, said.
“Legalization does not increase youth cannabis use,” she said, pushing back on an argument often made by opponents of the reform. “In fact, evidence suggests the opposite. By transitioning cannabis sales from the illicit market to a regulated system with age-restricted access, we’ve seen a decrease in youth cannabis use.”
The report cited data from a series of national and state-level youth surveys, including the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, which is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The latest version of the MTF released last month found that cannabis use among 8th, 10th and 12 graders is now lower than before the first states started enacting adult-use legalization laws in 2012. There was also a significant drop in perceptions by youth that cannabis is easy to access in 2024 despite the widening adult-use marketplace.
Another recent survey included in MPP’s analysis came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also showed a decline in the proportion of high-school students reporting past-month marijuana use over the past decade, as dozens of states moved to legalize cannabis.
At the state level, the cannabis group looked at research such as the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey that was released last April.
That survey showed declines in both lifetime and past-30-day marijuana use in recent years, with striking drops that held steady through 2023. The results also indicated that perceived ease of access to cannabis among underage students has generally fallen since the state enacted legalization for adults in 2012—contrary to fears repeatedly expressed by opponents of the policy change.
In June, meanwhile, the latest biannual Healthy Kids Colorado Survey was published in June found that rates of youth marijuana use in the state declined slightly in 2023—remaining significantly lower than before the state became one of the first in the U.S. to legalize cannabis for adults in 2012.
MPP also assessed survey data on the issue from other adult-use legalization states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.
“On the illegal market, no one is checking IDs before selling marijuana,” MPP concluded. “When and where cannabis is illegal, high schoolers often sell cannabis to their peers. In contrast, licensed cannabis stores have overwhelming compliance with age-gating. As part of legalization, a portion of cannabis taxes are often directed to education and prevention, such as after-school activities.”
The findings broadly track with other past surveys that have investigated the relationship between jurisdictions that have legalized marijuana and youth cannabis use.
For example, a Canadian government report recently found that daily or near-daily use rates by both adults and youth have held steady over the last six years after the country enacted legalization.
Another U.S. study reported a “significant decrease” in youth marijuana use from 2011 to 2021—a period in which more than a dozen states legalized marijuana for adults—detailing lower rates of both lifetime and past-month use by high-school students nationwide.
Another federal report published this summer concluded that cannabis consumption among minors—defined as people 12 to 20 years of age—fell slightly between 2022 and 2023.
Separately, a research letter published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in April said there’s no evidence that states’ adoption of laws to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults have led to an increase in youth use of cannabis.
Another JAMA-published study earlier that month that similarly found that neither legalization nor the opening of retail stores led to increases in youth cannabis use.
In 2023, meanwhile, a U.S. health official said that teen marijuana use has not increased “even as state legalization has proliferated across the country.”
Another earlier analysis from CDC found that rates of current and lifetime cannabis use among high school students have continued to drop amid the legalization movement.
A separate NIDA-funded study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2022 also found that state-level cannabis legalization was not associated with increased youth use. The study demonstrated that “youth who spent more of their adolescence under legalization were no more or less likely to have used cannabis at age 15 years than adolescents who spent little or no time under legalization.”
Yet another 2022 study from Michigan State University researchers, published in the journal PLOS One, found that “cannabis retail sales might be followed by the increased occurrence of cannabis onsets for older adults” in legal states, “but not for underage persons who cannot buy cannabis products in a retail outlet.”
The trends were observed despite adult use of marijuana and certain psychedelics reaching “historic highs” in 2022, according to separate data released last year.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
