Prevalence of Marijuana and other Substance use before and after Washington State's Change from Legal Medical Marijuana to Legal Medical and Nonmedical Marijuana: Cohort Comparisons in a Sample of Adolescents

Abstract

This exploratory study found that marijuana use was more prevalent among teens shortly after the transition from medical marijuana legalization only to medical and nonmedical marijuana legalization, although the difference between cohorts was not statistically significant. The findings also provided some evidence of substitution effects. The analytic technique used here may be useful for examining potential long-term effects of nonmedical marijuana laws on adolescent marijuana use and substitution or spillover effects in future studies.