Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Sep;21(9):714-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2011.06.001.

Adolescent marijuana use from 2002 to 2008: higher in states with medical marijuana laws, cause still unclear

Melanie M Wall  1 , Ernest Poh, Magdalena Cerdá, Katherine M Keyes, Sandro Galea, Deborah S Hasin
Affiliations

Adolescent marijuana use from 2002 to 2008: higher in states with medical marijuana laws, cause still unclear

Melanie M Wall et al. Ann Epidemiol. 2011 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: Since 1996, 16 states have legalized marijuana use for medical purposes. The current study provides a scientific assessment of the association of medical marijuana laws (MML) and adolescent marijuana use using national data.

Method: State representative survey data on approximately 23,000 12-17 year olds were collected by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health annually from 2002-2008. Yearly state-specific estimates of prevalence of past-month marijuana use and perception of its riskiness were statistically tested for differences between states with and without MML by year and across years.

Results: States with MML had higher average adolescent marijuana use, 8.68% (95% CI: 7.95-9.42) and lower perception of riskiness, during the period 2002-2008 compared to states without MML, 6.94% (95% CI: 6.60-7.28%). In the eight states that passed MML since 2004, in the years prior to MML passage, there was already a higher prevalence of use and lower perceptions of risk in those states compared to states that have not passed MML.

Conclusions: While the most likely of several possible explanations for higher adolescent marijuana use and lower perceptions of risk in MML states cannot be determined from the current study, results clearly suggest the need for more empirically-based research on this topic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of past month marijuana use among 12 to 17 year olds in states with MML1 (thick lines: solid after passing law, dashed before passing law) and states without MML (thin dotted lines). State abbreviation labels are noted along the left and right of the figure2. 1Eight states passed medical marijuana laws (MML) before 2002 (California CA in 1996; Oregon OR, Washington WA, and Alaska AK in 1998; Maine ME in 1999; Colorado CO, Nevada NV, and Hawaii HI in 2000) and are represented with solid thick lines from 2002–2008. Five states passed MML during the time period with NSDUH data available 2002–2008 (Montana MT and Vermont VT in 2004; Rhode-Island RI in 2006; New Mexico NM in 2007; Michigan MI in 2008) and 3 additional states passed MML after 2008 (New Jersey NJ and Arizona AZ in 2010; Delaware DE in 2011) and are represented with dashed thick lines before passage and solid thick lines after passage, if applicable (i.e. MI, NJ, AZ, and DE do not have after passage data available due to MML enacted in 2008 or later). 2Massachusettes MA and New Hampshire NH are labeled because of their high prevalence among states without MML
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Procon.org. [Accessed June 3, 2011];Medical Marijuana. http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000881.
    1. Chen CY, Storr CL, Anthony JC. Early-onset drug use and risk for drug dependence problems. Addict Behav. 2009 Mar;34(3):319–322. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kandel DB, Yamaguchi K, Chen K. Stages of progression in drug involvement from adolescence to adulthood: further evidence for the gateway theory. J Stud Alcohol. 1992 Sep;53(5):447–457. - PubMed
    1. Chatterji P. Illicit drug use and educational attainment. Health Econ. 2006 May;15(5):489–511. - PubMed
    1. Lemstra M, Bennett NR, Neudorf C, Kunst A, Nannapaneni U, Warren LM, Kershaw T, Scott CR. A meta-analysis of marijuana and alcohol use by socio-economic status in adolescents aged 10–15 years. Can J Public Health. 2008 May-Jun;99(3):172–177. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

-