The legalization of marijuana does not lead to increased marijuana use among adolescents or Black people in any age group, but it was a different story for Hispanics and non-Hispanic white adults, according to a wide-ranging study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week.
Hispanics and non-Hispanic white adults reported increased marijuana use on a monthly or yearly basis after their states legalized weed, according to researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, who polled over 838,000 Americans in nine states before and after weed was legalized in each.
But there was no before-and-after effect on daily marijuana use: Across all ages and races, daily marijuana use stayed the same after states legalized marijuana, according to the findings.
Dr. Silvia Martins, first author of the study and epidemiology professor at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, said the study shows it is "critical to examine patterns of use in the context of persistent racial and ethnic disparities in cannabis arrests and incarceration.”