Here's What Happened to Teen Drug Use in the US After States Legalized Marijuana Sophie Kleeman - News.Mic
go to original December 21, 2014

Marijuana Policy: Separating Scientific Facts from Popular Fiction (The Heritage Foundation)

It's on the decline. That's the takeaway from the 2014 Monitoring the Future study, which tracked drug use among more than 40,000 eighth, 10th and 12th graders across the United States. Produced by the University of Michigan and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, the comprehensive study looks at trends in alcohol, marijuana and cigarette use, among other drugs.

On the whole, each of these three substances has seen a drop in use among teenagers, but it's the data on marijuana use that stands out in the wake of legalization efforts in across the country. Across every age group and in almost every category of use (lifetime, past year, past month, daily), the numbers diminished from over the past year.

Marijuana use? Down. Alcohol use? Way down. Cigarettes? Waaay down. (The Washington Post)

This decline, of course, comes during a stretch of time in which Colorado and Washington both ramped up their legal marijuana production, and Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., all passed ballots with legalization measures.

So, that nightmarish hellscape America was supposedly destined to become (see video above) once we legalized marijuana? It doesn't actually exist.

Read the rest at News.Mic

Photo: Getty

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!