Dalgarno Institute Website - Cannabis Legalization Increases Consumption and all the Attending Harms

The Latest research out of the United States and it's ever unravelling 'legalization experiment' continues to confirm what was predicted by any objective researcher

Cannabis + Legalization = Greater Recreational Use (a 20% increase no less!) This may not just translate into a 20% increase in harms - it may do exponentially more, when you consider the layering impact of physical, mental and genetic harms of this highly engineered substance!

Impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on cannabis use: a longitudinal discordant twin study

First published: 24 August 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16016

ABSTRACT: To estimate the effect of recreational legalization on cannabis use frequency and sources of variance across legal environments.

Design: Longitudinal discordant twin and gene–environment interaction models in twins recruited from birth records and assessed prospectively.

Setting: The United States, including states with different recreational cannabis policies before and after 2014, when recreational cannabis was first legalized.

Participants: Two longitudinal, prospectively assessed samples of American twins aged 24–47 (n = 1425 in legal states, n = 1996 in illegal states), including 111 monozygotic pairs discordant for residence.

Measurements: Current cannabis use frequency (measured continuously and ordinally) was the primary outcome, and the predictor was recreational status of cannabis (legal/illegal) in the participant’s state of residence at the time of assessment. Covariates include age, sex and cannabis use frequency prior to 2014.

Findings: Accounting for pre-2014 use, residents of legal states used cannabis more frequently than residents of illegal states (b = 0.21, P = 8.08 × 10⁻⁵). Comparing 111 pairs of monozygotic twins discordant for residence confirmed the effect (b = 0.18, P = 0.014). There was inconclusive evidence for genetic influences on cannabis use frequency that were specific to the legal environment [χ² = 2.9 × 10⁻⁹, degrees of freedom (d.f.) = 1, P > 0.999]. Existing genetic influences were moderated by the legal environment, as the genetic correlation between marijuana use before and after legalization was lower in states that legalized (r_genetic = 0.24) compared with states that did not (r_genetic = 0.78, P_difference = 0.016).

Conclusions: In the United States, there appears to be a ~ 20% average increase in cannabis use frequency attributable to recreational legalization, consistent across increasingly rigorous designs. In addition, the heritability of cannabis use frequency appears to be moderated by legalization. (source https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16016)

We here at the Dalgarno Institute are no longer bewildered by the ignoring by policy makers of this disturbing and mounting evidence. The revisted 'Reefer Madness' as part of its new iteration, embraces the 'smokescreen' of pro-pot propaganda, that any 'minor negative outcomes, are not only insigificant, but will be remedied in the future, we don't doubt!'

The replication of Big Tobacco playbook is crystal clear, but now the populace is not being cleverly misinformed - no, now with all the history and data we have in play - they chose, it seems, to be willfully ignorant. That is the key factor to 1) an unfettered #addiction for #profit #cannabisindustry having its way in our culture; but more concerningly 2) an absolute #publichealth disaster for the immediate, but shockingly, future generations.

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Cannabis Legalization Increases Consumption and all the Attending Harms

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