California teenagers are binge drinking less and smoking fewer cigarettes following cannabis legalization in the state, according to new federally-funded research.

The study, published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, surveyed teens aged 18-20 prior to legalization and after legalization about their habits.

The researchers found that while the teens were drinking and smoking less — they weren’t using more cannabis either.

Centers for Disease Control: Marijuana use among teens in Washington State’s most populous county declined after legalization of cannabis for adults, according to a new federal study published in January by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The prevalence of current and frequent use fell significantly among youth in grades 8, 10 and 12 between 2008 and 2021.

According to the study, published in CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, current and frequent use of marijuana among teens in King County has fallen significantly since state voters legalized adult-use cannabis by initiative in November 2012.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7302a1.htm

Journal of Adolescent Health: The distance from school to the nearest medical marijuana dispensary (within 0- to 1-mi and 1- to 3-mi bands) was not associated with adolescents' use of marijuana in the past month or susceptibility to use marijuana in the future, nor was the weighted count of medical marijuana dispensaries within the 3-mi band of school. Neither the product price nor the product variety in the dispensary nearest to school was associated with marijuana use or susceptibility to use. The results were robust to different specifications of medical marijuana measures. https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(18)30058-2/fulltext

Journal of Cannabis Research: This is the first study to simultaneously examine the density of both MCDs [medical cannabis dispensaries] and RCRs [recreational cannabis retailers] around young adults’ homes and associations with future intentions to use cannabis, including the co-use of cannabis with tobacco/nicotine. Our results suggest that young adults who lived in an area with a greater density of any type of outlet were not significantly more likely to report stronger intentions to use cannabis, e-cigarettes, or cannabis mixed with tobacco/nicotine in the future.” https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-021-00084-y

Journal of Cannabis Research: “This study sought to answer the question ‘does permitting recreational cannabis dispensaries in a community effect high school students’ cannabis use, their perceptions of the accessibility of cannabis, and their perceptions of the harmfulness and wrongfulness of using cannabis?’ A cross-sectional survey of high school students was administered in 2013, before recreational cannabis dispensaries were permitted, and the survey was administered in 2015. … The 2013 and 2015 data on student cannabis use and perceptions toward cannabis was analyzed to compare high school student use and perceptions in communities in southcentral Colorado that had permitted recreational cannabis dispensaries with high school students in those communities that had not permitted dispensaries. … Based on the 2013 and 2015 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey data, permitting recreational cannabis dispensaries in a community does not appear to change student cannabis use or perceptions towards cannabis. https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-019-0002-0

• Legal cannabis dispensaries are not resulting in youth diversion – 

• “California laws further require ID check before any purchase, and overall compliance with this rule was high at 678 RCDs [recreational cannabis dispensaries] (96.8%).” SOURCE

• “[P]seudo-underage patrons were sent to 50 randomly selected licensed recreational marijuana outlets in the state to see if they could enter the outlet without showing a valid identification with their age. At 100 percent of the recreational marijuana outlets visited, the pseudo-underage patrons were required to show age identification to enter. It appears that California recreational marijuana outlets avoid selling to underage customers.” SOURCE