{"id":2493,"date":"2020-05-06T09:44:20","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T23:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/legalisation-of-weed-lessens-teen-use-that-myth-busted\/"},"modified":"2020-05-06T09:44:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T23:44:20","slug":"legalisation-of-weed-lessens-teen-use-that-myth-busted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/legalisation-of-weed-lessens-teen-use-that-myth-busted\/","title":{"rendered":"Legalisation of Weed Lessens Teen Use? That Myth Busted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Data By Koch-Funded Researchers Claiming Legalization Discourages Teen Use Is Deeply Flawed<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A study published in JAMA Pediatrics purports to show the legalization of marijuana leads to a reduction in teen use of the substance. This study, funded in part by the pro-drug legalization Charles Koch Foundation, is flawed for several reasons:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">It is based on the CDC YRBS, which&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/healthyyouth\/data\/yrbs\/participation.htm\">completely omits<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;Oregon and Washington \u2013 two large legal states \u2013 in 2017<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">It also excludes young people who are not in school, such as dropouts \u2013 (i.e. Colorado school absenteeism has skyrocketed with approximately 33% of students missing. This absent cohort are, for the most part, the cannabis using cohort, so their data is not included in school surveys.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">According to the most comprehensive survey on drug use, the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/learnaboutsam.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2019-Lessons-Final.pdf\">National Survey on Drug Use and Health<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 which includes all young people in households, not just those who gave permission to take a school survey \u2014 youth use of the drug is on the rise in legal states while declining in states that have not legalized the substance<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The study was partially funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, which is&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/06\/25\/koch-network-trump-administration-war-on-drugs\/\">partially dedicated<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;to legalizing marijuana (like&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.kochind.com\/news\/2018\/keep-local-marijuana-laws-from-going-up-in-smoke\">Koch Industries<\/a><\/strong>)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cTo put it simply, this study is awash with problems,\u201d said Dr. Kevin Sabet, founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. \u201cThe data here runs counter to what we see from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health: youth use is on the rise in \u2018legal\u2019 states while declining elsewhere. If you truly think that the legalization, commercialization, and normalization of marijuana has led to less young people using it, I have a bridge to sell you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">According to NSDUH data, the percentage of youth aged 12-17 using marijuana is declining faster in states where marijuana is not \u201clegal,\u201d and overall use is high in legal states while declining in non-legal states. Further, the percentage of youth in this age range using the drug in \u201clegal\u201d states was 7.7% versus 6.2% in non-legal states.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cMore research will be needed on this front,\u201d continued Sabet. \u201cA perfect example of the need for additional research comes from this very same publication. In 2014, JAMA&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamainternalmedicine\/fullarticle\/1898878\">published an article<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;purporting that states that have legalized marijuana saw a reduction in opioid overdoses over states that did not. In the years since, this study has been among the key talking points of the marijuana industry and its supporters. Then just last month, a study using the same methods and published in the same journal showed the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/med.stanford.edu\/news\/all-news\/2019\/06\/medical-marijuana-does-not-reduce-opioid-deaths.html\">completely opposite<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;result. When it comes to drug policy, we simply cannot put all of our eggs in one basket.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">To note, the same researchers authoring this study have also previously claimed marijuana legalization reduces traffic fatalities (although the overwhelming majority of&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/rmhidta.org\/files\/D2DF\/FINAL-%20Volume%205%20UPDATE%202018.pdf\">state data<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;shows otherwise) and reduces suicide (although numerous studies show use of high potency marijuana is&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/marijuana-risk-depression-suicide-teenagers-study-1329924\">linked with<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;suicide ideation).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">By&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/learnaboutsam.org\/author\/coltongrace\/\">Colton Grace<\/a> 2019&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><em>Smart Approaches to Marijuana<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/learnaboutsam.org\/new-data-by-koch-funded-researchers-claiming-legalization-discourages-teen-use-is-deeply-flawed\/\">https:\/\/learnaboutsam.org\/new-data-by-koch-funded-researchers-claiming-legalization-discourages-teen-use-is-deeply-flawed\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data By Koch-Funded Researchers Claiming Legalization Discourages Teen Use Is Deeply Flawed A study published in JAMA Pediatrics purports to show the legalization of marijuana leads to a reduction in teen use of the substance. This study, funded in part by the pro-drug legalization Charles Koch Foundation, is flawed for several reasons: It is based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-phase-platform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}