A new survey of teen drug use in Colorado has served to help marijuana legalization advocates in Massachusetts push back against the claims of opponents that legalization will lead to higher rates of teenage pot consumption. The survey released Monday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found that 21.2 percent of high
A new survey of teen drug use in Colorado has served to help marijuana legalization advocates in Massachusetts push back against the claims of opponents that legalization will lead to higher rates of teenage pot consumption.
The survey released Monday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found that 21.2 percent of high school students in that state reported using marijuana within the past 30 days in 2015. The rate, essentially flat, fell a few ticks from the 22 percent who reported using pot in 2011, the year before the drug became legal for adults.
However, opponents have pointed to the potential for abuse by teenagers as one of their main arguments against legalization in Massachusetts, and did not shy away from that contention in the face of the new survey.
Their argument: The first retail marijuana stores did not open in Colorado until 2014 from which point teen use, according to the same survey, has climbed modestly from 19.7 percent in 2013 to 21.2 percent in 2015. The increase in use was more pronounced among juniors and seniors in high school, according to the anti-marijuana legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who said prior-month pot use rose from 22.1 to 26.3 percent among juniors between 2013 and 2015, and from 24.3 percent to 27.8 percent among seniors over the same span.
