Opponents of marijuana legalization often claim that it will entice more underage kids to use it, but teen cannabis consumption has decreased in every single state that has enacted the policy change, according to a new report.
The analysis from the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) tracks federal and state government survey data on youth cannabis use from the years before each state legalized marijuana for adults through the present. In every instance, fewer high school students are using cannabis today than they were before their state enacted legalization.
For example, Colorado and Washington State were the first states to legalize in 2012. Since then, according to the Colorado Healthy Kids Survey, high school student use of marijuana has decreased by more than half (56 percent). The Washington State Healthy Youth Survey similarly shows that cannabis use has declined 62 percent for 8th graders, 73 percent for 10th graders and and 56 percent for 12th graders.
In Massachusetts, where voters in November will consider a ballot initiative to roll back marijuana legalization, cannabis use by high school students has been cut in half (a 51 percent decrease) since the policy change was enacted a decade ago.
High school students’ marijuana use
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