Why is teen use dropping in legal marijuana states, read this https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why

1. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 2/15
CANNABIS SALES AND TEEN USE
Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen
Consumption is Falling, Why?

2. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 3/15
Marijuana rates are dropping among youths as sales are booming during COVID
Posted by:
Reginald Reefer, today at 12:00am
Why are Youth Cannabis Rates Declining in States like
Colorado?
One of the biggest fears by opponents of cannabis legalization has been “the message we send our kids”. Their logic
states that if the government were to legalize cannabis – we would essentially be telling kids that “cannabis is okay”.
Of course – this kind of logic is easily dispelled by the mere legality of tobacco and alcohol, which are categorically more
harmful than cannabis and yet somehow manage to maintain the “this is an adult thing but it’s legal” narrative.
Nonetheless – one of the major fears for opponents were an increase in youth cannabis consumption. However,
recently even a stringent career prohibitionist – Dale Quigley – had to acknowledge that the data is showing the
opposite e ect occurring in legal cannabis states.

3. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 4/15
Excuse me? What’s that? Could you say that again?
Dale Quigley have been riding the prohibitionist train since the beginning and recently at a speaking engagement on the
impacts of cannabis legalization to a committee in North Dakota. Within this he was forced to acknowledge some of the
data concerning youth cannabis consumption.
“For some reason, the use rate among this age bracket is going down,” said Dale Quigley, deputy coordinator for the National
Marijuana Initiative, a project of the High Intensity Drug Tra cking Area (HIDTA) program. “We’re not 100 percent sure why it’s
going down. It’s a good thing that it’s going down, but we don’t understand why.” - Source
(https://www.marijuanamoment.net/white-house-anti-marijuana-o cial-admits-youth-use-has-fallen-since-legalization/)
While he’s not entirely sure – there are a few prevailing theories. We will get into that a bit further down.

4. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 5/15
Quigley cited data from the U.S Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services and de nes “current use” as use within the
period of a month.
“In looking at the state of Colorado for 12-to-17 year old current use, we had a spike in ’14, but overall the use rates in
Colorado have been declining,” he said, “and that matches what we’re seeing in other states and also the trend we’re seeing
nationally.”
In other words, these trends do not only hold true in Colorado but also nationally. Everywhere cannabis is being
legalized we’re seeing a dip in youth consumption rates. While Quigley tried to weave in some of his core programming
[reefer madness] into the talk, the hard data seemed to support legalization. His anecdotal references did not hold as
much weight as the data from SAMHSA.
What could be the reasons for Youth Cannabis Consumption Decline?
As Quigley states, “We don’t know why yet” – researchers still haven’t reached a de nitive conclusion on the subject
matter.
An October 2019 study using data from Washington State explained the dips in teen cannabis consumption in that state as
resulting either from increased regulation compared to the illicit market or simply the “loss of novelty appeal among youths.”
Due to high taxation – there still is black market cannabis available. In fact, one could argue that black market cannabis
in legal states are simply legal cannabis sold on the black market. Or perhaps home growers selling to consumers.
However – if this is the case, it could bring in other issues these studies have not yet considered.
Economy
Risk
Under the prohibition model – kids had access to cannabis because it was virtually on every street corner. It was
“Mexican Shwag Weed” for the most part, meaning that it was cheap.

5. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 6/15
Legal cannabis is not cheap. It can be a very expensive thing if you’re looking for quality. $30-$40 a dab hit makes
consuming cannabis on the regular not a viable option for Youths who make no money.
How does a thirteen year old ask his mom or dad for $100 for weed? When cannabis is inexpensive and sold on the
black market – you can easily buy a baggy and still spend it on other things. However, a few grams of dabs can bankrupt
a teen really quickly.
The second factor that researchers are ignoring is the “risk factor”. We can safely say that the black market vendors
under the Mexico-Import Model probably are still selling. The home growers might sell- but by selling to teens comes an
inherent risk most people don’t want to take.
If I can grow cannabis and sell it to responsible adults – and if I’m caught, perhaps pay some nes or do some
community service [in a legal state]- selling to the youth would invalidate the leniency of the sentence.
It’s like “sell to adults you get a slap on the hand, sell to a kid you get 3-5!” The criminal punishment for selling to the kids
make it less viable for eligible grey market vendors to refrain from selling. Additionally - kids can’t simply walk into
dispensaries and buy weed.
Of course – the decline of the perception of novelty of cannabis could also be a factor. I have long suspected that once
you remove the taboo from cannabis that the youth would abandon the pursuit of rebelling through it. Perhaps
legalization was always the answer to keep youth consumption rates in check all along.
TEEN CANNABIS USE DROPPING, READ MORE...

6. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 7/15
(https://cannabis.net/blog/news/why-do-teens-use-marijuana-less-after-
legalization)
WHY IS TEEN USE DROPPING AFTER MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION? (https://cannabis.net/blog/news/why-do-teens-use-
marijuana-less-after-legalization)
OR..
(https://cannabis.net/blog/news/the-1-reason-teen-marijuana-use-
drops-9-in-every-state-after-legalization)
TEEN MARIJUANA DROPS UP TO 9% RIGHT AFTER LEGALIZATION! (https://cannabis.net/blog/news/the-1-reason-teen-
marijuana-use-drops-9-in-every-state-after-legalization)

7. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 8/15
What did you think?
Keep reading... click here
(https://cannabis.net/blog)
0 0 0 0 0 0
Leave a Comment:
Submit
What are your thoughts?
Please log-in (https://cannabis.net/login) or register (https://cannabis.net/register) to post a comment.

8. 8/8/2020 Cannabis Sales are Surging Yet Teen Consumption is Falling, Why?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-sales-are-surging-yet-teen-consumption-is-falling-why 9/15
VAPING (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/VAPING) STRAINS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/STRAINS)
PERSONAL STORY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/PERSONAL-STORY) MEDICAL (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/MEDICAL)
VIDEOS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/VIDEOS) TECHNOLOGY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/TECHNOLOGY)
SEXY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/SEXY) RECIPES (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/RECIPES)
SMOKE (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/SMOKE) LOCATIONS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/LOCATIONS)
HISTORY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/HISTORY) NEWS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/NEWS)
SPORTS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/SPORTS) HOW TO (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/HOW-TO)
DABS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/DABS) EVENTS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/EVENTS)
B2B (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/B2B) OPINION (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/OPINION)
CATEGORIES