A new study showed that daily use of marijuana among teens is on the rise – leading researchers to call for “stronger guardrails” to protect against “more frequent, problem use, high-potency products and aggressive marketing.” The peer-review study of 370,000 California teens shows teen use has gone up since recreational pot use was made legal in 2016 and retail shops opened in 2018.
“We can’t treat cannabis like any other consumer product,” said Alisa Padon, research director at Getting it Right from the Start and a co-author on the paper. “Without strong local laws on access and limits on advertising and products that appeal to youth, we risk fueling a new wave of youth problem use that could have been prevented,” she added.
The findings show that the potency of the cannabis products is increasing, and that frequent cannabis use among adolescents “is linked to impaired memory and greater risk of developing cannabis use disorder and psychosis.”
“This study shows that legalization has changed not just whether teens use cannabis, but how they use it,” Bethany Simard, the lead author of the study and a research scientist at the Public Health Institute’s Getting it Right from the Start program, said in a statement.
The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health and was co-authored by researchers from UC Irvine and UCLA. “We’re seeing more young people using more often – exactly the pattern linked to dependence and long-term health risks,” Simard said.
The study showed frequent cannabis use among California 11th graders “rose sharply after the adult-use cannabis retailers began opening in 2018.” “While any past 30-day use leveled out, daily or near-daily use continued to increase, reversing a prior downward trend. The study shows more teens are using more frequently and more intensely – raising serious health risks for California youth,” the statement said.
The study also showed that in those jurisdictions that banned retail cannabis sales, the use rates among youth were lower before and after pot use was legalized. “In contrast, rates stayed higher in places that newly permitted storefront sales, while medical-delivery–only jurisdictions did not see increases,” the study findings state.
Moreover, “frequent use has risen alongside increases in cannabis potency – from stronger flower to highly concentrated products like vapes, shatter for dabbing, and wax, which carry a greater risk of dependency and of adverse mental health effects, including psychosis,” the study findings state.
The study, according to its authors, “underscores the need for public health guardrails to counter industry-driven normalization and protect youth.” Getting it Right from the Start urges policymakers to act by:
• Strengthening delivery regulations to prevent easy underage access.
• Using existing local and state government authority to adopt policies that reduce youth exposure and limit access to more harmful products.
• Restricting high-potency products like concentrates, dabs and infused pre-rolls.
• Curbing products, advertising and marketing that appeal to youth.
• Restoring recently cut tax revenues that fund youth substance abuse prevention programs.
