Examination of the Divergence in Trends for Adolescent Marijuana Use and Marijuana-Specific Risk Factors in Washington State

Abstract

Purpose As marijuana laws have become more permissive, survey data on adolescents in the United States have shown an increase in marijuana-specific risk factors, particularly in the proportion of youth who do not perceive marijuana use as harmful. Prevalence of marijuana use among youth, however, has changed little. Using representative data from Washington State, which has legalized medical and nonmedical marijuana for adults, we examined two competing hypotheses to account for this divergence in population trends. Methods Data were from 2000 – 2014 biennial Washington State surveys of 10th-grade students. First, we assessed whether associations between marijuana use and marijuana-specific risk factors have weakened over time. Second, we examined whether decreases in alcohol and cigarette use can account for the lack of expected increase in marijuana use prevalence. Results Despite stability in marijuana use prevalence, there were increases in marijuana-specific risk factors of low perceived harm, youth favorable attitudes about use, and perceived community attitudes favorable to use. Associations between marijuana use and marijuana-use predictors varied little across time; if anything, the positive association between low perceived harm and marijuana use grew stronger. Decreases in prevalence of alcohol and cigarette use largely accounted for stability in marijuana use during a period when marijuana risk factors increased. Conclusions Decreases in other types of substance use or in the underlying, common risk for substance use may have mitigated effects of increases in marijuana-specific risk factors.

Marijuana use among young people in an era of policy change: what does recent evidence tell us?

“…Recent evidence from the MTF and NSDUH also indicates that fewer adolescents and young adults perceive marijuana to be of "great risk" to their physical/overall wellbeing Lipari, Kroutil, & Pemberton, 2015). This matches up with evidence indicating that the proportion of high school students in Washington State that view marijuana use as being of little-to-no risk to one's wellbeing more than doubled between 2000 (14%) and 2014 (35%) (Fleming et al, 2016).…”

The association between regular marijuana use and adult mental health outcomes

“…In turn, more favorable attitudes about use and lower perception of harm have been linked to higher prevalence of and more frequent use of marijuana among adolescents (e.g., Fleming et al, 2016) as well as young adults (e.g., Salas-Wright et al, 2015). While the evaluation of the effects of recreational marijuana laws on population increases in marijuana use is currently underway and preliminary findings are mixed (e.g., Cambron et al, 2017; Cerdá et al, 2016; Darnell, 2015), understanding the potential impact of regular marijuana use on adult outcomes is important from public health and prevention perspectives.…”

The Changing Landscape of Adolescent Marijuana Use Risk

“…The articles in this issue by Fleming et al [4] and Bailey et al [5] provide a timely contribution as we grapple to understand adolescent marijuana use risk in a twenty-first century Notably, they found current parental use of marijuana to be associated with an increased likelihood of marijuana and alcohol use. All in all, these studies paint a rather complex picture in terms of changing perceptions, family relationships, and adolescent marijuana use.…”

“…That is, a number of recent studies employing national-level data suggest that the proportion of adolescents involved in behaviors such as smoking, underage drinking, unprotected sex, and other drug use has steadily dropped over the last decade [10,11]. As Fleming et al [4] point out, it seems likely that this overall trend is an important part of understanding the current trends in marijuana use. Indeed, it is certainly plausible that any increases we might expect to see in marijuana use-in Washington, Colorado, or elsewhere-might be dampened by an overall decrease in health-risk behavior among youth.…”

“…This is, without any doubt, good news for youth and good news for society. In the same breath, however, it is important that we not lose sight of the fact we have seen disconcerting changes in terms of marijuana-specific risk factors among adolescents [4] and young adults [9], and that emerging evidence suggests that marijuana use among American adults is on the rise [12][13][14]. In light of the present evidence, our assessment is that removing marijuana from the sphere of the criminal justice system and regulating its use and distribution likely brings more benefits than costs (or perhaps solves more problems than it is likely to create).…”