With several states considering medical and recreational cannabis legislation in 2016, the potential effects legalization on underage cannabis use is a major consideration for many voters. Medical marijuana opponents argue that legalizing marijuana for medical purposes conveys a message to young people of acceptability or minimizes the potential harms that can come with abuse.
However, nearly all studies examining the effects of cannabis legalization have shown “no increase or even a decrease in youth marijuana use after the passage of medical marijuana laws, including a brand new study published in the March 2016 issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy. This study by Melanie M. Wall and a team of Columbia University researchers was designed to examine the surprising findings of a 2015 study by Lisa Stolzenberg and her Florida International University colleagues. Stolzenberg’s study, using data from the US National Survey on Drug Use in Households, concluded that the “implementation of medical cannabis laws increase juvenile cannabis use.” The findings were published in an earlier issue of International Journal of Drug Policy.
Motivated to examine the reasons for Stolzenberg’s discrepant findings, Wall and her team replicated the methods used in the Stolzenberg study.
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