Colorado Teens' Marijuana Use Has Dipped Since Legalization: Report

When Colorado legalized marijuana in 2012, opponents of the change argued that loosening restrictions on the drug could increase usage rates among teens. But according to new survey data from Colorado's departments of health, education and human services, high schoolers now use marijuana at similar or slightly lower rates than they did before legalization.

Nearly 80 percent of students surveyed reported not having used marijuana in the last 30 days, a number that was the same in 2013. And only 38 percent of students had ever tried marijuana, which is nearly identical to national rates.

Across Colorado, a little more than half of students reported that marijuana would be easy to obtain (no national data was available on this question).

"The survey shows marijuana use has not increased since legalization, with four of five high school students continuing to say they don’t use marijuana, even occasionally," the Colorado Department of Health said in a statement.

The statement also emphasized that parents have a strong influence on the choices their children make over whether to use drugs.

In 2009, 25 percent of students reported having used marijuana in the past 30 days, and 43 percent reported ever having used it.

In other good news for Colorado kids, alcohol and cigarette usage rates have also continued to decline, with nearly seven in 10 students reporting no drinking in the last 30 days, and nine in 10 students saying they don't smoke.

The data comes from a survey of 17,000 randomly selected students from schools across the state.

One potential worry about this data is that it relies on anonymous self-reports of health behaviors, which may not be completely reliable. However, even if the numbers are not entirely accurate, the consistent levels of reported use over several years suggest that teen smoking is not on the rise.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper was strongly opposed to legalization at first, but more recently he has softened on the issue as some of the direst predictions have failed to come true. In an interview with Fox Business, he said that legalization was "not as vexing as we thought it was going to be.”

In addition to helping mollify some worries about marijuana legalization, Colorado's data also reflects a larger trend of reduced drug and alcohol use, and healthier behaviors generally, among teens nationwide. As reported on Vox, teen pregnancy rates, cigarette use, heavy drinking and violence are all way down, and seatbelt use is up.

Read the full survey report here>>

Photo Credit: Brett Levin via Flickr