A common objection to enacting medical marijuana laws is that they will “send the wrong message” to and promote recreational marijuana use by young people. A detailed and thorough report published by Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) last month found that statistics clearly oppose this theory. The June, 2011 report is an updated version of “Marijuana Use by Young People: The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Laws” completed in 2005.

“Unfortunately, there are many people that like to scare voters and legislators with unfounded warnings that treating patients with compassion will make teens’ marijuana use skyrocket. We now have substantial data showing these fears are completely unfounded,” says Karen O’Keefe Esq., co-author of the report in a press release. “Lawmakers need to listen to the facts with regard to medical marijuana, not wild conjecture and fear tactics.”

The researchers analyzed all available data surveying cannabis usage trends by teens in states with medical marijuana laws enacted. Most of the 16 states had data available for years both before and after the laws had passed, enabling comparison. New Jersey, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. were excluded as their laws are too new to have included. National trends were also examined. The data was gathered entirely from state and federal government surveys on teen marijuana use, using their own parameters for statistical significance.

The report includes data from: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) conducted by the Research Triangle Institute and sponsored by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the annual Monitoring the Future study conducted by the University of Michigan under contract with the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Researchers also cite “Medical Marijuana: Update for the Pediatrician” published in California Pediatrics by Seth Ammerman, MD. Reviewing 11th and 12th grade usage trends in medical marijuana states, Ammerman likewise discovered “the data are very reassuring that in almost all cases medical marijuana legalized for adults does not lead to an increase in recreational use of marijuana by adolescents.”

California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, with Proposition 215, in 1996. Michigan has the newest medical marijuana law of the states included, passed in 2008. With over 14 years and 13 states to draw upon, there is a now substantial data to draw conclusions from.

Medical marijuana laws and the public discussion about medicinal benefits of cannabis surrounding them have not increase use among adolescents. In fact, 10 of the states analyzed showed a decrease in marijuana use by teens after cannabis was legalized for medical use. Nationally, there was a drop both in high schoolers’ current marijuana use and in their lifetime marijuana use since the year before California’s initiative passed.

“When states consider proposals to allow the medical use of marijuana under state law, the concern often arises that such laws might ‘send the wrong message,’ and therefore, cause an increase in marijuana use among young people. The available evidence strongly suggests that this hypothesis is incorrect and that enactment of state medical marijuana laws has not increased adolescent marijuana use,” the researchers conclude. “Consequently, legislators should evaluate medical marijuana proposals based on their own merits — without regard for the speculative and unsupported assertions about the bills sending the ‘wrong message.’”

Read the report in entirety:

MARIJUANA USE BY YOUNG PEOPLE: The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Laws (2011)