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Youth and Vigor
Legal cannabis in Washington has produced many positive results for various communities in the state. A surplus of tax dollars, thousands of new jobs and a huge variety of high quality products makes it hard to see what the opponents of cannabis reform were so worried about. One of the many potential threats that naysayers claimed that legal cannabis posed was that teens would be more likely to consume it. It turns out that they were wrong all along.
The results from 2016’s Healthy Youth Survey in Washington revealed that among most age groups, cannabis use has actually decreased. The Healthy Youth Survey measures a large variety of lifestyle and health factors including the consumption of cannabis, alcohol and prescription drugs. The survey is given to middle and high school students through their school district administration every two years. Cannabis was available for purchase legally in Washington as of July of 2014. Therefore it was determined that 2016 is the first year the data from this survey would reflect any impact of legal recreational cannabis. So far, the data is in favor of cannabis reform.
“The first year the data from this survey would reflect any changes from legal recreational cannabis would be 2016. So far, the numbers are looking pretty good.”
Among sixth graders, just one percent reported they had used cannabis in the last 30 days in both 2014 and 2016, indicating that young teens are largely continuing to abstain from cannabis. As for the eighth graders, seven percent reported having consumed cannabis in the last 30 days in 2014, as opposed to six percent in 2016. This is also down from nine percent of eighth graders in 2012. The percentage of 10th graders who admitted to using cannabis in the month prior was 17 percent, which is slightly lower than it has been in at least a decade, down from 18 percent in 2014 and 19 percent in 2012. For 12th graders, the percentage of kids who had consumed cannabis in the past 30 days was down to 26 percent in 2016, from 27 percent in both 2012 and 2014. While the numbers aren’t overwhelming, there does seem to be a pattern. If the number of teens using cannabis has been affected at all by Initiative 502, it has only decreased.
These findings mirror the data released in Colorado released last year, which reported even more dramatic decreases in youth cannabis consumption. A study published in the Scientific American reported on the findings of a biannual poll by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “21.2 percent of Colorado high school students surveyed in 2015 had used marijuana during the preceding 30 days, down from 22 percent in 2011, the year before voters statewide approved recreational cannabis use by adults 21 and older,” the report stated.
Interestingly, alcohol and prescription drug use have also decreased slightly since legalization. In 2016, the percentage of 10th and 12th graders who reported using alcohol in the last 30 days decreased by one percent in comparison to those in 2014. In 2014, two percent of eighth graders, five percent of 10th graders, and six percent of 12th graders, reported using pain killers in the last 30 days. In 2016, two percent of eighth graders, four percent of 10th graders and five percent of 12th graders used pain killers in the last 30 days.
These decreases, and in some cases lateral changes, aren’t necessarily indicative of any effect legal cannabis has had. But it is interesting to note that the single worst fear of critics is basically irrelevant. These findings are by no means conclusive proof that there is no evidence that legal cannabis increases consumption by teens. This powerful reality is something cannabis advocates should be pleased to hear.
