In case you missed it, this week’s edition of the Drug Review, the new editorial portion of The Drug Report, covered several state-level health surveys focused on school-aged students. The surveys found evidence that regulated dispensaries sell to thousands of minors every year.
Key Highlights:
- When high school users in Arizona were asked how they obtained marijuana, 21.0% of 12th graders, 13.1% of 10th graders, and 8.2% of 8th graders said they “bought it from a dispensary within Arizona,” according to the 2022 Arizona Youth Survey.
- The 2021 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey found that 12% of 12th graders, 6% of 10th graders, and 3% of 8th graders who obtained marijuana in the past month answered, “I bought it from a store.”
- The 2021 Massachusetts Youth Health Survey found that 4.3% of high school students who used marijuana in the past month answered, “I bought it from a store.”
- When past-month high school users in Colorado were asked to identify the one source where they “usually” obtained marijuana, 4.9% answered, “I bought it at a marijuana store or center,” the 2021 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey found. An additional 1.7% answered, “I used a marijuana delivery service.”
- The California Healthy Kids Survey looked at the issue from a slightly different angle, asking students to identify where their peers obtained marijuana. According to the 2017/19 survey, 19.3% of 11th graders, 12.0% of 9th graders, and 5.0% of 7th graders said their peers “buy it at a marijuana dispensary.”
These findings, based on self-reported answers from minors, disprove the claim that marijuana can be effectively regulated and stores can be trusted to not sell to underage users.
You can read the first Drug Review article, which highlights the outcomes of Oregon’s failed experiment with the decriminalization of all drugs, HERE.