#NORML #News Source: @norml @WeedConnection Posted By: norml@weedconnection.com media :: news - Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:20:21 PST
Marijuana Use Not Increased By Young People
New York, NY: Changes in marijuana's legal status under state law is not associated with increased cannabis use or access by young people, according to pair of recently published studies.
In the first study, published online in the journal Substance Use & Misuse, researchers at Columbia University in New York surveyed the marijuana use habits of a national sampling of 1,310 adolescents over a two-year period. Investigators assessed whether respondents from states with liberalized cannabis policies were more likely to acknowledge having consumed cannabis as compared to those residing in jurisdictions where the substance remains criminally prohibited.
Authors reported that the study's findings "failed to show a relationship between adolescents' use of marijuana and state laws regarding marijuana use. ... [They] suggest that eased sanctions on adult marijuana use are not associated with higher prevalence rates of marijuana use among adolescents."
In the second study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, a team of investigators from Columbia University, the University of California at Davis, and Boston University examined the relationship between medical cannabis laws and the prevalence of marijuana availability and use by adolescents and by those age 26 or older. Authors reported no changes over a nine-year period (2004 to 2013) with regard to the past-month prevalence of marijuana use by those ages 12 to 17 or those between the ages of 18 and 25. Those age 25 and younger also experienced no change in their perception of marijuana's availability. By contrast, self-reported marijuana use and perceived availability increased among adults age 26 or older during this same time period.
The conclusions are similar to those of numerous separate studies reporting that changes in marijuana's legal status are not associated with any uptick in teens' use of the substance, such as those here, here, here, and here.
The two studies are, "Is the Legalization of Marijuana Associated With Its Use by Adolescents?" and "State-level medical marijuana laws, marijuana use and perceived availability of marijuana among the general U.S. population.”
Senior Citizens Study Cannabis Use
New York, NY: Self-reported marijuana use by those age 50 and older is increasing, according to demographic data published online ahead of print in the journal Addiction.
Researchers at New York University's School of Medicine and at Columbia University evaluated marijuana use patterns for those over 50 years of age for the years 2006 to 2013.
Investigators reported that the prevalence of past-year cannabis use rose approximately 60 percent for those age 50 to 64, and increased 250 percent for those over 65 years of age. Overall, use rates increased 71 percent (from 2.8 percent in 2006 to 4.8 percent in 2013) for all of the respondents.
Authors reported that marijuana use was significantly higher among older males than among females (6.8 percent to 3 percent). Those respondents who reported suffering from two or more chronic medical conditions were more likely to use cannabis than those who did not.
"We found a significant increase in the prevalence of past-year cannabis use in the US among older adults from 2006/2007 through 2012/2013, with large relative increases particularly among those ages 65 and older," they concluded. "This increase in cannabis use is not unanticipated given the high rates of substance use among the Baby Boomer generation. ... Given that the majority of Baby Boomers have still not yet reached the age 65, we will likely continue to see the trends continue into the next decade."
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "Demographic trends among older cannabis users in the United States, 2006-2013," appears in Addiction.
Australia Medical Marijuana Changes
Canberra, Australia: New regulations permitting the licensed cultivation and production of cannabis for medicinal purposes are now in effect.
The intention of the new rules is to establish and regulate a domestic supply of cannabis to be used in state-sponsored clinical, investigational trials.
In March, members of Parliament overwhelmingly approved amendments to the Narcotics Drugs Act of 1967 to permit qualified patients participating in clinical trials to have increased access to cannabis.
Values 63 Percent Say Marijuana Should Be Legal (prior to election day)
Washington, DC: Sixty-three percent of Americans age 18 and older favor making the use of marijuana legal, according to national polling results compiled by the Public Religion Research Institute's American Values Survey.
This percentage is the highest ever reported by the poll, and marks a 30 percent increase in public support for marijuana legalization since 2014.
The poll possesses a margin or error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.
The results come only days after separate surveys released by the Pew Research Center and by Gallup also reported that Americans' support for legalizing marijuana is at an all-time high.
