As the federal government prepares to release its annual "Monitoring the Future" survey of teenage drug use, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in Washington, D.C., will release a report examining a hotly debated question: Do our marijuana laws deter teen use of marijuana?
When reformers propose regulating marijuana for adults in a manner similar to alcohol or tobacco, government officials often object that such a policy would encourage use by children. Because such assertions are widely accepted by the press and the public and underlie so much U.S. public policy, MPP undertook a thorough examination of data that can shed light on the impact of marijuana laws on rates of marijuana use by young people, including:
**U.S. government data on rates of marijuana use by youth and adults before and after the advent of national marijuana prohibition in 1937.
**Independent studies by impartial research organizations such as RAND Corp. and the National Research Council.
**Comparisons of youth marijuana use rates in the U.S. with rates in nations that have differing marijuana policies, such as the Netherlands, and state-to-state comparisons in the U.S. and Australia, where states or territories have differing laws.
**The impact on teen marijuana use of Britain's decision to end most marijuana possession arrests in January 2004.
**Studies suggesting a possible "boomerang" effect of marijuana prohibition, including the impact of the unregulated illicit drug market on both marijuana use and progression to hard drugs (the "gateway effect").
MPP's report will be released to the public Dec. 11.
