Marijuana Facts

Public Health & Social Cost

  • Marijuana is not a benign drug. Marijuana use, particularly long-term, chronic use that began at a young age, can lead to dependence and addiction. 1
  • Studies show marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past twenty years 21 raising serious concerns about implications for public health – especially among adolescents, for whom long-term use of marijuana may be linked with lower IQ (as much as an average 8 point drop) later in life. 2
  • Marijuana is the second leading substance for which people receive drug treatment 22 and a major cause for visits to emergency rooms. 3
  • Marijuana use is significantly linked with mental illness, especially schizophrenia and psychosis,but also depression and anxiety. 4
  • In Colorado, 13.6% of adults are regular users of marijuana. 5 This is almost double the national rate of 7.4%. 6
  • National THC potency has risen from an average of 3.96 percent in 1995 to an average of 12.55 percent in 2013. The average potency in Colorado was 17.1 percent. 7
  • Legality increases the availability and acceptability of drugs, as seen with alcohol and tobacco – which far outpaces the use of illegal drugs. 8
  • Increased availability and acceptability of marijuana would likely lead to increased consumption of the drug. 9
  • Increased consumption leads to higher public health and financial costs for society. Addictive substances like alcohol and tobacco, which are legal and taxed, already result in much higher social costs than the revenue they generate. The cost to society of alcohol alone is estimated to be more than 15 times the revenue gained by their taxation. 10

Youth & Young Adult Use

  • The adolescent brain, particularly the part of the brain that regulates the planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision-making and social behavior, is not fully developed until the early to mid-20s. Developing brains are especially susceptible to all of the negative effects of marijuana and other drug use. 11
  • Marijuana use directly affects the brain, specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, and reaction time. These effects can last up to 28 days after abstinence from the drug. 12
  • Most people use drugs for the first time when they are teenagers. There were just over 2.8 million new users of illicit drugs in 2013, or about 7,800 new users per day. Over half (54.1 percent) were under 18 years of age. 6
  • More than half of new illicit drug users begin with marijuana. Next most common are prescription pain relievers, followed by inhalants (which is most common among younger teens). 6
  • Nationally, marijuana was the most commonly used illicit drug among 8th and 12th graders during the past year. Of the 8th graders surveyed 11.7% used marijuana/hashish. This figure rose to 35.1% among 12th grade students who used marijuana/hashish. 13
  • If marijuana use starts in adolescence, the chances of addiction are 1 in 6. 16
  • In 2013, 11.16 percent of Colorado youth ages 12 to 17 years old were considered current marijuana users compared to 7.15 percent nationally. Colorado ranked 3rd in the nation and was 56 percent higher than the national average. 7
  • In 2013, 29 percent of college age students (ages 18 to25 years old) were considered current marijuana users compared to 18.91percent nationally. Colorado, ranked 2nd in the nation, was 54 percent higher than the national average. 7

Workplace Impacts

  • Marijuana use directly affects the brain, specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, and reaction time. These effects can last up to 28 days after abstinence from the drug. 12
  • Marijuana continues to be the most commonly detected illicit drug of workforce urine drug tests. 17
  • An analysis of urine drug test data for the combined U.S. workforce from the two states with “recreational” use laws – Colorado and Washington – showed marijuana positivity rates increased 20 and 23 percent, respectively, in the general workforce between 2012 and 2013, compared to the 5 percent average increase among the U.S. general workforce in all fifty states. 17
  • Studies have also suggested specific links between marijuana use and adverse consequences in the workplace, such as increased risk for injury or accidents. 18
  • A Michigan Court of Appeals (October 2014) found employees approved by the state to use medical marijuana are entitled to unemployment compensation if they were fired for failing a drug test. 19
  • In October, 2014, a New Mexico appellate court ruled in favor of an employee that medical marijuana must be covered by the workers’ compensation system and employer. 20
  • Since marijuana remains illegal under federal law, any workplace that receives federal funding or is subject to federal regulations requiring the testing of safety-sensitive workers must continue to consider marijuana a prohibited substance (Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988).

Traffic, Safety & Hospitalization Impacts

  • Research shows policies that would make drugs more available would likely not eliminate the black market or improve public health and safety. Recent reports from the nonpartisan RAND Institute found that the potential economic benefits from legalization had been overstated. 14, 15
  • In 2014, when Colorado retail marijuana stores began operating, there was a 32 percent increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths in one year. 7
  • Colorado marijuana-related traffic deaths increased 92 percent from 2010 – 2014. During the same time periods all traffic deaths only increased 8 percent, respectively. 7
  • In 2014, when Colorado retail marijuana businesses began operating, there was a 29 percent increase in the number of marijuana-related emergency room visits in only one year. 7
  • In the three years after medical marijuana was commercialized, compared to the three years prior, there was a 46 percent increase in hospitalizations related to marijuana. 7
  • During 2009 –2012, when medical marijuana was commercialized, the yearly average number of interdiction seizures of Colorado marijuana increased 365 percent from 52 to 242 per year. 7
  • U.S. mail parcel interceptions of Colorado marijuana, destined for 38 other states, increased 2,033 percent from 2010 –2014. 7

Footnotes

1 Anthony, JC, Warner, LA, and Kessler, RC (1994) Comparative Epidemiology of Dependence on Tobacco, Alcohol, Controlled Substances, and Inhalants: Basic Findings from the National Comorbidity Survey, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2(3):244-268. Available: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1994-45545-001

2 Meier et al., “Adolescent-onset cannabis and neuropsychological health.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [August 27, 2012]. Available: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/08/22/1206820109  

3 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Highlights of the 2010 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings on Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. [July 2012]. Available: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/2k12/DAWN096/SR096EDHighlights2010.pdf

4 Moore TH, Zammit S, Lingford–‐Hughes A, et al. Cannabis use and risk of psychotic or affective mental health outcomes: A systematic review. Lancet 370(9584):319–328, 2007. Also Large, M., Sharma S, Compton M., Slade, T. & O., N. (2011). Cannabis use and earlier onset of psychosis: a systematic meta‐analysis. Archives of General Psychiatry. 68. Also see Arseneault L, et al. (2002). Cannabis use in adolescence and risk for adult psychosis: longitudinal prospective study. British Medical Journal. 325, 1212‐1213.

5 Marijuana Use in Colorado, Results from the Colorado Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System  and Colorado Child Health Survey, CDPHE, Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment. [2015] Available:https://www.colorado.gov/cdphe/marijuanause

6 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) 2013, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Revised June 2015. Available: http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-trends

7 Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact, Vol. 3, September 2015. Available: http://www.rmhidta.org/html/2015%20FINAL%20LEGALIZATION%20OF%20MARIJUANA
%20IN%20COLORADO%20THE%20IMPACT.pdf

8 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Results from the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. [September 2012]. Available:http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k11Results/NSDUHresults2011.htm

9 Kilmer, Beau, et al., Altered States? Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets. RAND Corporation. [2010]. Available:http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP315.pdf

10 Ellen E. Bouchery, Henrick J. Harwood, Jeffrey J. Sacks, Carol J. Simon, Robert D. Brewer. Economic Costs of Excessive Alcohol Consumption in the U.S., 2006. American Journal of Preventive Medicine – November 2011 (Vol. 41, Issue 5, Pages 516-524, DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2011.06.045). Available: http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(11)00538-1/fulltext

11 Giedd. J.N.(2004). Structural magnetic resonance imaging of the adolescent brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021, 77-85.

12 Hall W & Degenhard L (2009).Adverse health effects of non‐medical cannabis use. Lancet,374: 1383-1391.

13 Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Miech, R. A., Bachman, J. G., &Schulenberg, J. E. (2015). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use: 1975-2014: Overview, key findings on adolescent drug use. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan. Available: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org//pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2014.pdf

14 Kilmer, Beau, et al., Reducing Drug Trafficking Revenues and Violence in Mexico: Would Legalizing Marijuana in California Help? RAND Corporation. [2010]. Available:http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP325.pdf

15 Kilmer, Beau, et al., Altered States? Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets. RAND Corporation. [2010]. Available:http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP315.pdf

16 Wagner, F.A. &Anthony, J.C. From first drug use to drug dependence; developmental periods of risk for dependence upon cannabis, cocaine, and alcohol. Neuropsychopharmacology 26, 479-488 (2002).

17 “Workforce Drug Test Positivity Rate Increases for the First Time in 10 Years, Driven by Marijuana and Amphetamines, Finds Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index™ Analysis of Employment Drug Tests”, Quest Diagnostics, September 11, 2014.

18 Macdonald S., Hall W, Roman P, Stockwell T, Coghlan M, Nesvaag S. “Testing for Cannabis in the workplace: a review of the evidence.” Addiction. 2010; 105:408-416.

19 Braska v. Challenge Mfg Co, No. 313932, 2014 WL 5393501 (Mich Ct App October 23, 2014) Available:http://employmentlawblog-vanhyfte.typepad.com/employment_law_michigan/2014/11/michigan-medical-marijuana-cards-and-unemployment-benefits.html

20 Gregory Vialpando v. Ben’s Automotive Services and Redwood Fire and Casualty, May, 2014. Available:https://coa.nmcourts.gov/documents/opinions/Vialpando%20FO.pdf

21 Mehmedic, Zlatko, et al., “Potency Trends for Δ9-THC and Other Cannabinoids in Confiscated Cannabis Preparations from 1993 to 2008.” Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 55, No. 5. [September 2010]. Available:http://home.olemiss.edu/~suman/potancy%20paper%202010.pdf

22 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions by Primary Substance of Abuse, 2010. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. [2012]. Available: http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/US12.htm