New federal data show that despite the fact that more states are legalizing marijuana, rates of cannabis use in high school students, both current and lifetime, have continued to decline.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), published last week, found that teen use of all monitored substances–including marijuana, alcohol and prescription drugs–has “decreased linearly” over the past decade.
The federal study indicates that cannabis use among high school students increased from 2009 to 2013 – before legal marijuana dispensaries opened – but has declined since then. In 2012, voters approved the first recreational legalization laws in each state. Retail sales began in 2014.
According to the latest data collected from the biennial survey, 15.8 percent of high-school students in 2021 reported having used marijuana at least one time in the last 30 days. This is down from 21.7 percent from 2009 and significantly below the record high of 23.4% in 2013.
Via CDC
The trend has been welcomed by health officials, but they have pointed out that the social isolation policies caused by the coronavirus epidemic likely played a part in the decline in substance abuse among youth during the last two years.
Despite this, the trend is still in opposition to one of the most popular arguments used by prohibitionists against legalizing marijuana. Studies and surveys, including those funded or conducted by the federal government, have repeatedly demonstrated that legalizing marijuana for adults will not increase teen use.
According to the YRBS study, cannabis consumption in high school was at its peak before states opened up marijuana stores for adults. In the years that have passed, with more and more online markets, youth are less likely to say they use cannabis.
The lifetime consumption of marijuana by teens is also declining. In 2021, only 27.8 % of teens reported using cannabis at least one time in their lives. This is a drop of nearly 10 percentage points from 2019, when the rate was 368.8 %.
The peak annual marijuana use was also in 2013, before states opened up adult-use cannabis retail stores.
The CDC’s supplementary Report states that “youth substance abuse has decreased over the past decade including during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” “However, substance abuse remains common among U.S. High School students and continues to be important given the changing marketplace for alcohol beverage products, drugs, and other substances.”
It says that “Scaling up tailored, evidence-based programs, policies, and practices that reduce factors that increase risk of adolescent drug use and promote factors to protect against risk could help build on the recent declines.”
The latest CDC data is now available. See the data on health experiences and risks among U.S. High School students. #CDCYRBS https://t.co/ileEb4Od54
May 1, 2020 — CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health
The marijuana trend has been consistent throughout the reform movement, even though COVID is likely to have contributed to the abrupt decline of cannabis and other substances measured in 2021.
A study published last year in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), found that legalizing marijuana at state level is not linked to increased youth usage.
The study showed that “youths who spent more time in their adolescence during legalization weren’t more or less likely than those who spent little or none of their adolescence during legalization to have used marijuana at 15 years old.”
Another federally-funded study by researchers at Michigan State University , published in PLOS One in the summer of last year, found that cannabis retail sales could be accompanied by an increased incidence of cannabis onsets in older adults in states that allow it. “But not for young people who are prohibited from buying cannabis products at retail outlets.”
, the most recent version of a biennial survey, released last year, shows that adolescent cannabis use in Colorado has declined in 2021.
In a study from California, last year concluded that “there was 100% compliance with the ID policies to prevent underage patrons purchasing marijuana directly from licensed retailers.”
Last year, the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation, a marijuana policy group backed by the alcohol and tobacco industries, released a document analyzing data about youth marijuana use rates in light of state-level legalization.
In October , another federally-funded study was released. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health. (NSDUH) showed that youth marijuana usage dropped in 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic and more states enacting legalization.
A 2021 analysis by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that legalizing cannabis has a cumulative impact on teen cannabis consumption that was “statistically equivalent to zero.”
The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics analyzed youth surveys of students in high school from 2009 to 2019. It concluded that “there is no measurable difference” between the percentage of 9-12 grade students who have consumed cannabis at least one time in the last 30 days.
A CDC survey conducted in 2009-2019 found that there was no change in the current rate of cannabis use by high school students. However, when analyzed with a quadratic model of change, lifetime marijuana consumption declined during that time period.
Colorado officials released a study in 2020 that showed that cannabis consumption by youth in the state has “not significantly changed” since 2012 when it was legalized, but methods of consumption have been diversified.
Pennsylvania Lawmakers file bill to legalize marijuana sales through state-run stores
Martin Alonso is the photographer of this photo.
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