United Press International - September 6, 2005
Todd Zwillich

The study shows widespread reductions in marijuana use have occurred generally at the same rate among all the states, including those allowing medical use.

The study was funded and released by the Marijuana Policy Project, a group backing medical-marijuana efforts nationwide. The group said its findings belie Bush administration claims that medical-marijuana laws send youth a mixed message that helps to encourage drug use.

Ten states currently allow patients with certain medical conditions to use marijuana under the supervision of a physician.

Overall, the United States has seen a decrease in marijuana's popularity among teenagers since 2000, after a prolonged increase in use during the 1990s. For example, compared with 1996, about 43 percent fewer 8th graders and 9 percent fewer 12th graders reported they had used the drug in the past 30 days in 2003.

California became the first state to permit medical-marijuana use in 1996.

At the same time, past-month use dropped by half among the state's 9th graders and by one-quarter among 11th graders, according to the report, which analyzed federal and state statistics. Approximately one-fifth of California's high school juniors now acknowledge using marijuana within the last month.

Other states with medical-marijuana laws also saw varying reductions in youth marijuana use. Past-month use by 12th graders in Washington state was down 32 percent since a medical-marijuana law was enacted in 1998, though rates dropped only 12 percent among Maine's high school seniors since a similar law was passed there in 1999.

Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada and Oregon also allow some medical marijuana, and all showed some reductions in youth use since the laws were passed. Montana and Vermont have enacted similar laws, but they did so too recently to detect any trends, the researchers said.

Several other states are considering measures allowing the use of marijuana by patients, backed by some evidence the drug can ease a variety of health problems, including pain, nausea and weight loss caused by cancer, as well as AIDS and glaucoma.

Bush administration drug officials have consistently fought the laws, stressing that such measures undermine efforts to persuade youth that marijuana is a dangerous drug.

"Contrary to the fears expressed by opponents of medical-marijuana laws, there is no evidence that the enactment of 10 state medical-marijuana laws has produced an increase in adolescent marijuana use in those states or nationwide," the MPP study concluded. "Opponents of medical marijuana laws should cease making such unsubstantiated claims."

Mitch Earleywine, one of the study's investigators, told United Press International the results show medical-marijuana laws have not stopped or slowed progress against illegal drug use in the eight states studied.

"Use is clearly decreasing regardless of medical marijuana laws," said Earleywine, an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany.

Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in a statement that youth drug use has fallen largely because of increased perception among teens that drugs are dangerous.

"Misleading messages that harmful substances are somehow 'good for them' send teens exactly the wrong message," Riley said. His statement did not directly address the study's state-by-state findings.

Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled federal anti-drug agencies have the right to enforce nationwide bans on marijuana, even in states that allow medical use. The ruling was seen as a victory for the Bush administration, but it did not prevent states from enacting new medical-marijuana measures.

Todd Zwillich covers healthcare matters for UPI. E-mail: sciencemail@upi.com
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