Yesterday we posted about Washington State’s state-mandated reporting on youth and cannabis in reply to US Attorney General Sessions’ criticism of their legalization law and showing that teen use of cannabis has not increased since its passage. And we previously reported on Colorado’s reply to the AG
Today we’re adding a newly released report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) showing that on a nation-wide basis…
“Past-month youth cannabis-use rates among minors aged 12 to 17 have gently but steadily decreased since 2002. The rate in 2016—6.5%, down half a percentage point from a year earlier—is now the lowest in more than 20 years.”
One would think that these independent confirmations of the lack of a youth use epidemic in the face of increasing cannabis legality would finally put the matter to rest and we could get back to medical cannabis’ safety and efficacy in the treatment of various conditions.
But pardon us for doubting it.
After multiple generations of the pounding in of Reefer Madness mythology about the devastating effects of the mere presence of cannabis on youthful abuse, getting the truth out and accepted takes more repetition than would otherwise be required.
Evidence for this came during the recent Town Hall broadcast by #KNRS, where Ogden Police Chief Ray Watt stated that youth use is higher in medically legal states.
The implication that medical legality leads to such rates is thoroughly belied by all three of the sources noted here – showing that youth use hasn’t increased in the two most intensively scrutinized states and that even as medical cannabis has gone from being legal in no states to being legal in well over half of the states in the last 20 years, youth use is dropping nationwide.
[Note: Chief Watt seemed to be using talking points from the discredited Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (#RMHIDTA) “data” whose severe shortcomings we’ve documented in other recent posts.]
So with officials continuing to spread incorrect information (including this and much more in this debate), it’s clear advocates need to keep getting the real, best verified data out into the community.
#MMJ #Research #Youth #USpol #WApol #COpol #TRUCE
http://ift.tt/2ePrYzQ (9/7/2017)
See full article – Federal Gov’t: Teen Cannabis Use Rate Drops to 20-Year Low | Leafly
