Denver Post wants more research on teen use and medical marijuana

(Denver Post) In the aftermath of Colorado’s disorganized experiment with medical marijuana, questions have arisen about whether it is getting into the hands of teenagers and how it is affecting their attitudes about the drug.

It would be a public service, we think, for researchers to look into what we see as the potential spillover effect of a burgeoning medical marijuana industry. Such information would be useful given what seems to be a softening of attitudes toward marijuana legalization.

In a Denver Post story by John Ingold, a doctor who runs a substance abuse clinic at Denver Health Medical Center said he has seen a nexus. Christian Thurstone said substance abuse referrals for marijuana have tripled since mid-2009, which is when the state’s medical marijuana system spiraled out of control with dispensaries popping up overnight like mushrooms.

If only the federal government sponsored such research on marijuana usage and perceptions of harm among teenagers.  A survey, if you will.  Oh, wait, they do!  It’s the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (“NSDUH”, issued since 1979) and the Monitoring the Future 12th Grade (“MTF” taken since 1976) and 8th + 10th Grade surveys!

It would be helpful if the studies broke down their data by state, but the sampling sizes would have to be much larger to be statistically relevant on a state-by-state basis.  However, MTF does give us a “Region” variable we can use to identify response from the “West”.

In 1979, generally considered the peak year of marijuana use in the United States, 36.2% of Western 12th graders reported using marijuana in the past month.  In 2001, by which time Colorado has enacted medical marijuana and programs in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii are in effect, the rate of our monthly Western 12th grade pot smokers has declined to 23.5%.  The latest survey for 2009 as the number of dispensaries in California and Colorado have exploded shows 19.5% of Western 12th graders using cannabis in the last thirty days.

Now I’m not surprised that there may be an increase in referrals to substance abuse treatment for marijuana when you consider that those “referrals” are most often (57% according to another government source, the Treatment Episode Data Set or “TEDS”) from the criminal justice system, which in many cases is somebody caught with marijuana, sent to a drug court and given the choice of treatment or jail.  Over a third of the people headed to rehab for marijuana haven’t even used marijuana in the thirty days prior to entering rehab.

But I agree with the Post at least in the sense that I welcome more research into the matter.