Cannabis use among teenagers has fallen since legalization in the United States

Even as more and more U.S. states legalize cannabis, current and lifetime rates of cannabis use among U.S. high school students continue to decline, as shown by recently released federal data.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), released last week, reveals that adolescent use of all monitored substances—including cannabis, alcohol, and prescription drugs—has «declined steadily» over the past decade.

With regard to cannabis, the federal study shows that use among high school students tended to increase between 2009 and 2013, before legal cannabis dispensaries began opening in the first states to legalize it, but that it has generally been declining since then. The first laws on legalization of cannabis in the United States were approved by voters in 2012, and regulated retail sales began in 2014.

Cannabis Use Rates Among American Adolescents

The latest data from the biennial survey show that 15.8% of high school students reported having used cannabis at least once in the past 30 days in 2021, compared to 21.7% in 2009 and significantly lower than the record high of 23.4% reached in 2013.

Health officials were encouraged by this trend, although they noted that social distancing policies resulting from the coronavirus pandemic likely played a role in the extent of the decline in substance abuse among young people during the most recent two-year period measured.

«Substance use among young people has declined over the past decade, including during the COVID-19 pandemic,» according to a follow-up report from the CDC. «However, substance use remains common among U.S. high school students, and it is important to continue monitoring it in the context of the evolving market for alcoholic beverages and other drugs.»

«The expansion of appropriate, evidence-based policies, programs, and practices aimed at reducing the factors that contribute to the risk of substance use among adolescents and promoting factors that protect against that risk could help consolidate recent declines,» the report states.

In 2021, a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and published in the’American Journal of Preventive Medicine has shown that the legalization of cannabis at the state level is not associated with an increase in consumption among young people.

The study found that «young people who spent a greater portion of their adolescence under a legalization regime were no more or less likely to have used cannabis by age 15 than adolescents who spent little or no time under a legalization regime.».

Another study funded by the federal government and conducted by researchers at Michigan State University, published last summer in the journal PLOS One, revealed that «the legalization of cannabis retail sales could be followed by an increase in the onset of cannabis use among older adults» in states where it is legal, «but not among minors who cannot purchase cannabis products at retail outlets.».

Another study published by Colorado authorities in 2020 showed that cannabis use among young people in that state «has not changed significantly since legalization» in 2012, although the methods of use are becoming more diverse.