A federally-funded study suggests that legalizing marijuana may have a “substitution” effect, with Californian young adults “significantly reducing” their consumption of alcohol and tobacco after the cannabis reform.
The research also contradicted prohibitionist arguments regarding the possible impact of legalization. Data revealed that marijuana consumption among young adults, who are not yet of the age to enter retail dispensaries, did not increase significantly. However, there were some interesting changes to the way in which cannabis was consumed following the policy change.
The study was published last week in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. It involved surveys of 18-20-year-olds living in Los Angeles, both before and after adult use marijuana became legalized in California under a voter initiative in 2016. The study interviewed 172 subjects between 2014 and 2015. Another 139 subjects after legalization were interviewed in 2019 and 2020.
Researchers found that “despite the possibility of increased cannabis access via diverting from adult-use market and increased normalization cannabis use”, legalizing recreational marijuana did not increase cannabis usage among subjects. However, they did observe a shift in the consumption of edibles after adult-use legalization.
The study states that “we observed significantly less days of alcohol or cigarette consumption among the [post legalization] cohort as compared to [pre-legalization],” This indicates that “cannabis, including edibles or possible ongoing changes in norms” and attitudes towards these substances are likely to be the cause.
Researchers said that “Lower frequency alcohol and tobacco consumption coupled with an increase in edibles post-AUL could suggest a substitute effect. This could result from increased access to cannabis via a medical cannabis prescription or diverting cannabis from adult or medical use cannabis dispensaries.”
The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the study. It also found that the changes in illicit and prescription drug use “didn’t significantly differ” from pre-legalization to post-legalization. This, the researchers say, is “notable” since critics had predicted that AUL could lead to an increase in other drug use via the “gateway theory.”
The study concluded that future studies should examine whether the rates of cannabis and alcohol use continue to decline as some participants approach adult legal drinking age, and how this trend continues or changes as participants move into later emerging adulthood.
The study has some limitations, including the fact that underage people cannot purchase alcohol or cigarettes. However, this finding of a possible substitute effect is echoed by numerous other studies, covering jurisdictions all over the country.
According to a recent study in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, legalizing medical cannabis is associated with a a “lower frequency” of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids.
A federally-funded study in August found that cannabis was significantly associated with decreased opioid cravings among people who use them without prescription. This suggests that increasing access to legal marijuana could provide a safer alternative for more people.
In a separate study, published last month, it was found that legal accessibility to CBD products resulted in significant reductions of opioid prescriptions. State-level decreases ranged between 6.6 and 8.1 percent.
In a report published this summer, medical marijuana users were linked to reduced pain levels, and reduced dependency on opioids. The American Medical Association published a study in February that found chronic pain patients receiving medical marijuana for more than a month experienced significant reductions in opioids.
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The article Study: Young Adults Report Significantly Lower Rates of Alcohol and Tobacco Use Following Marijuana Legalization first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
