Is there a link between legalizing cannabis and committed illegal behavior? This is what a recent study published in JAMA Network Open hopes to address as team of researchers in Canada investigated how legalizing cannabis across Canada has how cannabis is used. This study has the potential to help scientists, legislators, and the public better understand the benefits and risks of legalizing cannabis and whether it increases or decreases cannabis use.
For the study, the researchers conducted a cohort study—observational study involving a specific group of individuals over a specific time period—involving 1,428 adults between ages 18 and 65 with 569 being men and 859 being women and an average age of 34.5 years. The goal of the study was to ascertain differences in cannabis use and misuse between recreational cannabis legalization in Canada in October 2018. The data was obtained between September 2018 and October 2023 and was analyzed between November 2023 and January 2024.
In the end, the researchers found decreases in both cannabis use and misuse among individuals who used cannabis before legalization while finding modest increases in cannabis use and misuse among individuals who started using cannabis after legalization. Additionally, the researchers found cannabis users changed the cannabis products they used between before legalization and after legalization, transitioning from actual cannabis flowers and oils to vapes, liquids, and edibles.
The study notes, “These changes were substantially moderated by prelegalization cannabis use, with more frequent consumers of cannabis before legalization exhibiting the largest decreases in both outcomes. Although longer-term surveillance is required, these results suggest Canadian recreational cannabis legalization was associated with modest negative and positive consequences among adults.”
What new connections between cannabis legalization and cannabis use will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: JAMA Network Open, Marijuana Moment