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All the latest news stories...May 2012 |
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| A new study shows a decrease in marijuana use among teenagers in states that have enacted medical marijuana laws, refuting the frequent claim that such laws "send the wrong message" to adolescents. The study, authored by Mitch Earleywine, a State University of New York psychology professor, and Karen O'Keefe, a legislative analyst with Marijuana Policy Project, used data from state and federal government-sponsored drug use surveys to compare teen marijuana use before and after the passage of medical marijuana laws. Up until California's medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, was passed in 1996, surveys conducted with 6000 students every two years showed a steady increase in recreational marijuana use. Following the passage of Prop 215 however, the statistics dropped drastically. In their report, Earleywine and O’Keefe state that "perhaps medical marijuana laws send a very different message than opponents of such laws have suggested: Marijuana is a treatment for serious illness, not a toy, and requires cautious and careful handling.” The Office of National Drug Control Policy believes that voter-approved medical marijuana laws are “clouding” the message of its anti-drug campaign, which it credits for the overall decline in marijuana use in adolescents. Yet the eight medical marijuana states with before-and-after data have shown a drop in overall marijuana use. Those states are Alaska, Colorado, Hawai’i, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. (Montana and Vermont do not have data available since the 2004 enactment of their medical marijuana laws.) The numbers speak for themselves; between 1996 and 2004, marijuana use in the last 30 days among high school freshmen dropped 47%, and the number of freshmen who had tried marijuana at least once dropped 35%. The correlation is too obvious to ignore as voters in states across the country begin to recognize the medicinal use of marijuana and that endorsing its medical use does not increase marijuana use in teenagers. |
