College Students in States With Legalized Marijuana Report Greater Use of Drug

College students in states where recreational use of marijuana is legal appear to be using marijuana more frequently than peers in states where such use is not legal, according to areport inAddiction.“Identifying whether [recreational marijuana legalization] affects different patterns of use is important from the perspectives of policy evaluation and prevention implications,” wrote Harold Bae, Ph.D., and David C. R. Kerr, Ph.D., of Oregon State University. “The present findings suggest tha t [recreational marijuana legalization] may increase the likelihood of patterned marijuana use… .”Bae and Kerr analyzed the responses of undergraduates aged 18 to 26 to the National College Health Assessment survey between 2008 and 2018. This anonymous survey asks students about a variety of issues, including mental and sexual health as well as alcohol, tobacco, and substance use. Specifically, Bae and Kerr were interested in how students responded to questions about the number of times they used marijuana in the past 30 days and whether these responses varied according to marijuana laws in the states where the students attended college.The final sample included 234,669 students who attended 135 college in seven U.S. states where recreational use of marijuana was legalized, and 599,605 students who attended 454 colleges in 41 states where recreational use was not legal. The researchers found that students who attended college in states where recreational use of marijuana is legal ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: addiction college David C.R. Kerr Harold Bae marijuana recreational marijuana legalization use Source Type: research