New Teen Drug Use Survey Debunks Anti-Pot Argument

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

More evidence has come to light courtesy of a new study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting that, despite prohibitionist fear-mongering, teen marijuana use has not increased. In fact, since peaking  at 47 percent in 1999, the amount of teens that have admitted to smoking marijuana has been steadily declining. 2011 to 2013 numbers have that rate holding flat even in the face of steadily increasing medical and recreational legality.

Certainly if there was a correlation to be made between legal weed and a bump in teen use,  there would have been at least a minor uptick in teen use percentage. The data simply does not validate what the naysayers were hoping was true. It would make their case so much easier to prove if the bullshit they spin turned out to be true.

From the source article:

“The public dialogue surrounding marijuana is more balanced and honest than ever before,” says Mason Tvert, the Marijuana Policy Project’s director of communications, in a statement. “We should be encouraging teens to take part in it, not shielding them from it.” The reasoning is simple: remove the taboo and you remove part of the thrill. What’s more, by regulating the plant, the government has more say in who gets their hands on it. Rates of alcohol and cigarette use among teens have also dropped in recent years — “and we didn’t have to arrest any adults for using them,” Tvert says. “We could see the same results by regulating marijuana.”

No matter how inconvenient, it is hard to win when math, science, and data just refuse to validate your world view.