Teen Marijuana Use Remains Flat Nationwide As More States Legalize

So one might imagine with two states legalizing the recreational use and sale of cannabis and many more states decriminalizing possession of small amounts that teenagers would be walking around baked out of their heads and the numbers of teens using going through the roof. That's not the case. As marijuana's national popularity continues to grow and more states have legalized either medical or recreational use of it, a new federal survey shows that those shifting attitudes have not produced a surge in teen use. "The biennial High School Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the rate of marijuana use among U.S. high school students remained virtually unchanged from 2011 to 2013. It's also about 3 percent less than the peak of teen marijuana use in 1999, when nearly 27 percent of teens said they had recently used marijuana, according to the CDC data.In 2013, 23.4 percent of American high-school-aged teens used marijuana one or more times in the 30 days before the survey, the data show. That's nearly even with 23.1 percent in 2011.

From 2011 to 2013, five more states -- Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois and New Hampshire -- legalized marijuana for medical use. Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia have legal medical cannabis programs. Also during that period, Colorado and Washington state became the first two states in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana." http://nr.news-republic.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=1&articleid=24506776