People in US states that have legalized recreational cannabis use it 20% more often than those in states that have not, suggested a study published Thursday in the journal Addiction.
The researchers interviewed 3,421 participants at the University of Colorado Boulder Center for Antisocial Drug Addiction and the Minnesota Center for Research on Twins and Families in Minneapolis about cannabis use at two different points: prior to 2014, when it was illegal to sell recreational cannabis, and after 2014, when it became legal to sell in Colorado. Only medical cannabis was legal in Minnesota during the post-2014 portion of the study.
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Participants, many of whom were born in Colorado and Minnesota but have since moved, were surveyed before and after 2014 about how many days they used cannabis in the past six months, and scientists initially found there was an increase of about 24% in cannabis consumption. use in states that have legalized recreational cannabis compared to those that have not. Based on where respondents lived at the time of the surveys, nearly all states were represented, along with Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.
The study also included 111 sets of identical twins, with one twin living in a state that legalized recreational cannabis and the other in a state that did not. Among identical twins, the researchers found that use increased by about 20% in states that legalized recreational cannabis compared to those that did not.
Because identical twins share so many similarities, this percentage is a more accurate estimate of the causal influence of cannabis legalization on cannabis use, said lead study author Stephanie Zellers, now a researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland.
Identical twins share the same genes and often the same type of upbringing, both of which can influence how often someone uses cannabis, said Zellers, who was a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Minnesota at the time of the project.
“As this 20% estimate is from the analysis that controls for measured and unmeasured variables,” Zellers said, “it is the most accurate estimate of the causal influence of cannabis legalization on cannabis use.”
Many states that, like Colorado, have legal recreational cannabis also have an ample number of dispensaries, so shopping is easy, a factor that may have contributed to the higher rate of use, Zellers said.
No legal consequences, such as fines or imprisonment, can also affect increased use in recreational states, he added.
“In addition, the existence of recreational policies influences the perception of cannabis use,” Zellers said, “making it safer and less stigmatized.”
How legalization affects use
As more states legalize the recreational use of cannabis, it is important to recognize how this legalization affects consumption, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.
“This knowledge can be used to inform strategies to implement legalization while minimizing potential harm,” said Volkow, who was not involved in the study.
The statistics can also help researchers understand how recreational use affects the rate of cannabis dependence, she said.
About 30% of people who use marijuana in the United States have marijuana use disorder, the official term for marijuana addiction, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In states where recreational use is legal, ads often label the drug as safe, Volkow said.
More research needs to be done on the safety of cannabis and its impact on the body before people can jump to conclusions about safety, she said.
It’s not black and white
“People often want to say that cannabis is good or bad,” Volkow said. “But in biology, nothing is black and white – there is a lot of gray.”
Frequent or prolonged use of cannabis is associated with health conditions like chronic bronchitis and schizophrenia, she said.
However, use has also been shown to be effective in treating some pain conditions, such as nausea and vomiting, Volkow said.
People have only seen mild to moderate pain relief with prescription cannabis products and no benefit from over-the-counter cannabis medications, according to a study published in June in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Zellers said he hopes to conduct more research into the effects of increased cannabis use on conditions such as mental health and addiction.
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