Waterloo, Canada: Fewer younger people in Canada consume cannabis following adult-use marijuana legalization, according to data published in the journal Addictive Behaviors Reports.
Canadian researchers compared youth use rates among a cohort of nearly 40,000 teens (students in grades 9 to 12) prior to legalization versus a similar cohort of students four years later.
Investigators reported that fewer teens in the later cohort acknowledged being ‘current’ cannabis consumers. Further, a greater percentage of students in the second cohort identified as ‘never’ having tried cannabis.
The study’s authors concluded: “This paper compares risk profiles for cannabis use among large samples of youth in the school years preceding (2017–18, T1) and four years following (2021–22, T2) cannabis legalization in Canada. … This study provides evidence that, in a relatively short 4-year period spanning the cannabis pre-legalization to post-legalization time periods, adolescent cannabis use has declined.”
Other studies have reported declines in marijuana-related hospitalizations among young people, as well as fewer interactions between juveniles and police, following legalization of the Canadian adult-use marijuana marketplace.
Government-sponsored survey data from the United States similarly reports declining rates of cannabis use by young people.
Full text of the study, “Using decision trees to examine risk profiles for cannabis use among large samples of underage youth before and after cannabis legalization in Canada,” appears in Addictive Behaviors Reports. Additional information regarding legalization and youth use patterns is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana Regulation and Teen Use Rates.‘