With Canada fully legal, 24 states in the US for recreational and 40 with medical, marijuana has gone mainstream. A full 90% of people believe it should be legal in some form. Is cannabis like alcohol and there for a good time, or are people truly using it for something else? The data say a surprising number uses marijuana to not get high, but to manage something medical.
Part of the reason this number is significant is research has shown cannabis is no where near as addictive as opioids. North America is facing an unprecedented opioid crisis leaving cities big and small in a turmoil about what to do.
According to a report from High Yield Insights, a Chicago-based consumer behavior research firm the numbers are intriguing. States where recreational use has been legalized, nearly half (44 percent) of cannabis consumers are using cannabis for medical purposes, including for pain relief (69 percent) and sleep assistance (65 percent), and to manage anxiety (54 percent).
In another study published in Psychopharmacology, the numbers are lower but significant. In US legal–recreational states (34%) than US illegal states (23%), US legal–medical only states (25%), and Canada (25%). The most common physical health reasons include use to manage pain (53%), sleep (46%), headaches/migraines (35%), appetite (22%), and nausea/vomiting (21%). For mental health reasons, the most common were for anxiety (52%), depression (40%), and PTSD/trauma (17%). There were 11% who reported using cannabis for managing other drug or alcohol use and 4% for psychosis.
High Yield Insights shared medical marijuana patients are twice as likely to check CBD levels when they purchase cannabis, with 47 percent verifying CBD concentrations versus 25 percent of recreational users. Medical users also seek out more convenient and discrete ways to consume, such as edibles, topicals, oils and tinctures. Notably, medical users are twice as likely as recreational consumers to use topicals (22 percent vs 11 percent) and over three times as likely to use tinctures (17 percent vs 5 percent).
“The industry generally understands that the adult use consumer differs significantly from the medical user. We saw an opportunity to quantify this customer segment’s behaviors and preferences in a way to yield deeper understanding and reveal untapped market opportunities,” said Mike Luce, co-founder of High Yield Insights and a veteran in consumer and market research.
“Flower will always play a significant role, but medical users are seeking solutions that feel familiar and accessible. With edibles, we’re seeing a demand for low- dose, fast-onset options that meet users’ needs for discretion and convenience. CBD-focused companies also have an opportunity for growth if aligned with medical cannabis users’ interest in what today are niche product forms,” Luce added.
Several studies have demonstrated medical marijuana helps reduce the opioid dosage for patients undergoing treatment for non-cancer pain. More research can be done to legal the patients benefits.
In another positive reason for cannabis legalization – teen use continues to drop.
One of the great arguments against marijuana legalization is it will lead to more youth partaking. This argument is brought out, despite teen alcohol use continuing to be a problem. Now, a new study shows teen marijuana is continuing to decline, coinciding with the increasing legalization of cannabis for adult use across the United States. This trend contradicts predictions made by opponents of legalization, who argued that easier access would lead to increased youth consumption.
According to the latest Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), cannabis use among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders is now lower than before the first states began enacting adult-use legalization laws in 2012. This decline is part of a broader trend of decreasing youth drug use, which has reached historic lows since the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported an 18% decrease in the percentage of 12- to 17-year-olds who had ever tried marijuana from 2014 to 2023. Additionally, current marijuana use among this age group fell by 19%. Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavioral Survey found a 26% reduction in the percentage of high schoolers identifying as current cannabis consumers between 2013 and 2023.
Researchers attribute this decline to several factors:
Regulated markets: Licensed dispensaries require proof of age, making it more difficult for teenagers to obtain marijuana.
Effective ID policies: Studies show high compliance rates among licensed cannabis retailers in checking customer IDs.
Shifting perceptions: There has been a significant drop in youth perceptions that cannabis is easy to access, despite the widening adult-use marketplace.
The trend is not limited to the United States. A Canadian study found high school students reported more difficulty accessing marijuana since the country legalized it nationwide in 2019
These findings support the argument that regulated marijuana markets for adults, with appropriate safeguards, can effectively deter youth access and use. The data suggests that legalization policies can be implemented in a manner that provides regulated access for adults while simultaneously limiting youth access and misuse.
As more states consider legalizing marijuana, this evidence can inform policymakers and public health officials in developing effective strategies to protect youth while allowing adult use. The ongoing decline in teen marijuana use demonstrates that legalization, when properly implemented, does not necessarily lead to increased adolescent consumption and may even contribute to its reduction.
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YES, The Simpsons predicted Covid, Barbie mania and this country being the first to legalizing marijuana – what’s next?
If you want any accurate representation of what’s to come, skip the fortune teller. One show has a spooky way of predicting things which come true. Maybe it is because the writers have a pulse on what’s going on, maybe they have just been around a long time…but it is true. And yes, “the Simpsons” predicted legal weed, so what’s next?
By now it’s a long-standing meme the show has predicted multiple historical events of our time. What was once flippant jokes from the show’s writers have come to pass, including a Donald Trump Presidency, Farmville, the Higgs-Boson particle, Guitar Hero, a submersible disaster, and the Disney-Fox merger.
In the cannabis world, the show foresaw Canada legalizing recreational marijuana. Back in the 2005 episode “Midnight Rx,” Homer, Ned Flanders, Apu, and Grandpa Simpson travel north of the border to acquire cheaper drug prescriptions. At one point, the Ned runs into his Canadian doppleganger, similar in every way except one: Canadian Ned hits the “reeferino.”
“It’s legal here,” the Canadian says, while offering Ned a hit. Flabbergasted by such a suggestion, Ned says to Homer, “They warned me Satan would be attractive. Let’s go!”
As the US waits for a potentially rescheduling of marijuana, the industry is hanging out at Moe’s Tavern to see if their are any hints. Unlike the Canada episode, there’s isn’t any clear predictions, but an episode from 2000 predicted details of what could soon be real-life events. In “Bart to the Future”, Lisa Simpson becomes president and wears a purple suit and pearls that are uncannily similar to what Kamala Harris. Harris has been the champion of rescheduling, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-KY) is not.
With accurate guesses on both Covid and the Ebola outbreak, they also predicted a dark winter of 2025. The episode from Season 33 in January 2023 apparently foreshadowed something called a dark winter. Let’s hope this one is off the mark.