Teen Cannabis Use Declines In CO; Stoner News

When Colorado first passed the legal cannabis initiative, people were shocked. And not only that, they were mad. There were people everywhere, saying that both Colorado and Washington would basically crumble like the city of Pompeii under the weight of thousands of marijuana buds, as compared to volcanic ash. One of the primary arguments against the legalization? That the number of teens using the plant would drastically increase, causing huge problems with the youth in Colorado. Protect the kids, they said, that’s where the real problems will pop up!

Unfortunately for the Debbie Downers, cannabis use has not skyrocketed among the young people of the Rocky Mountain state but instead, it has begun to decline. Surprising results, considering that “the plant will be easily obtainable once legal”, which is something a lot of protestors were saying. Contrary to that belief, a study done by Healthy Kids Colorado in 2013 showed us that in the first year that cannabis was legal, 20% of high school students admitted to using cannabis in the past month and 37% had claimed that they had tried smoking the plant at some point in their lives. Compared to the numbers from the same survey done in 2011, where there were 22% of kids that had tried pot in the month before and 39% having tried smoking. Followed by results from the survey in 2009, there were 25% of kids that said the used cannabis in the last month and 45% that said they had smoked before in their lives.

Although researchers are saying that it’s too early to tell, the results seem to be on a downward slope, proving that cannabis legalization won’t destroy society and the youth of the nation won’t turn in to a bunch of tie-dying, Dorito munching crazies. Of course youth cannabis use would be on a decline. With more programs to educate kids, the youth won’t be so tempted to try this forbidden substance that everyone seems so afraid about. Remember when your mom told you not to flush all kinds of cool shit down the toilet? And after she told you that you couldn’t do that, all you could think about was flushing everything you could find down that magical, disappearing hole? Same concept. The forbidden is always more attracting to the young. If you teach them how to responsibly ingest it, like alcohol or Tylenol, there will be very few problems down the line. Educate not isolate.