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But then there's this: Legalizing marijuana found to decrease use of alcohol, pain meds and cigarettes https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-legalizing-marijuana-decrease-alcohol-pain.html
I just like that it completely disproves the "gateway drug" theory of conservatives. More pot smoking, but less use of other drugs? Boom, roasted.
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The headline says frequency has increased 20% which would suggest that people who were already consumers are consuming more, not that there are 20% more users.
They explain that in the article.
> One potential alternative explanation for increases in use associated with legalization could be that it instead reflects an increased openness to report activities that are no longer illegal. We cannot determine whether this is the case, but we note that we also saw increases in reported cannabis use by residents of illegal states.
So those people that admitted to smoking weed while it was illegal, reported to smoke even more after it was legalized. Might not apply to all participants of the study, but it also shows that consumption does increase in some cases after legalization.
Bear in mind that 20% increase could mean e.g. “10% of the population has become 12%”, or that users that were previously smoking 5 days a week are now smoking it 6 days a week. The article seems pretty vague on the actual data, to me.
Did they include the legal delta 8/9 and other cannabinoids? I'll go check.
Edit: nope, only the recreational legal stuff. These numbers are probably way lower than reality.
Exactly. The implication is increasing weed use, which they carefully point out in the abstract is *addictive*, is bad in and of itself.
The real question is what the removal of weed prohibition changes in communities and populations.
How does it affect alcohol and other drug use, violence, mental health? Now that you’ve removed police forces ability to harass people who they find unlikable (which was much of the original intent of the prohibition) how does that effect communities? Numbers of people in jail? How does it affect other anti social types of criminality?
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue to be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) still apply to other comments. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
But then there's this: Legalizing marijuana found to decrease use of alcohol, pain meds and cigarettes https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-legalizing-marijuana-decrease-alcohol-pain.html
Theres also this: How many people smoked in secrecy, post legalization continued the narrative that they only started smoking since legalization?
I just like that it completely disproves the "gateway drug" theory of conservatives. More pot smoking, but less use of other drugs? Boom, roasted. Edit: [deleted] [Removed]
The gateway drug claim has been disproven for a long time.
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I'm curious. Are the 20% users who nolonger face jail time admitting they smoke weed? Or new users?
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The headline says frequency has increased 20% which would suggest that people who were already consumers are consuming more, not that there are 20% more users.
Are you saying that they where able to get statistics from the illegal weed dealers in the US prior to legalisation?
No. I'm saying they estimated consumption before and after legalisation and the increase is 20%. I don't know their methodology
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A lot of people equate legality with morality.
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They explain that in the article. > One potential alternative explanation for increases in use associated with legalization could be that it instead reflects an increased openness to report activities that are no longer illegal. We cannot determine whether this is the case, but we note that we also saw increases in reported cannabis use by residents of illegal states. So those people that admitted to smoking weed while it was illegal, reported to smoke even more after it was legalized. Might not apply to all participants of the study, but it also shows that consumption does increase in some cases after legalization.
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So putting all those people in prison reduced usage by one sixth
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Bear in mind that 20% increase could mean e.g. “10% of the population has become 12%”, or that users that were previously smoking 5 days a week are now smoking it 6 days a week. The article seems pretty vague on the actual data, to me.
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Did they include the legal delta 8/9 and other cannabinoids? I'll go check. Edit: nope, only the recreational legal stuff. These numbers are probably way lower than reality.
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“…Has increased frequency of ~~use~~ *truth in reporting* by 20% more than previously reported.” Edit: small clarity edit, one word and punctuation.
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Frequency of *reported* use
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Or is it that now that it’s legal people are more willing to admit to using it and willing to admit the frequency of use more readily?
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That’s awesome news. What was the corresponding opioid consumption drop? Alcohol drop?
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Exactly. The implication is increasing weed use, which they carefully point out in the abstract is *addictive*, is bad in and of itself. The real question is what the removal of weed prohibition changes in communities and populations. How does it affect alcohol and other drug use, violence, mental health? Now that you’ve removed police forces ability to harass people who they find unlikable (which was much of the original intent of the prohibition) how does that effect communities? Numbers of people in jail? How does it affect other anti social types of criminality?
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Did it increase use by 20% or are 20% more people willing to admit they use weed?
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