QUESTION ASKED: Is Mary Jane to Blame For Teen Suicides?

We’ve been looking at almost 30 years of the liberalization of marijuana prohibitions. A recent study looks at an unintended consequence of the move.

Medical, Recreational Marijuana Legalization Associated With Higher Rates of Youth Suicide, Study Shows
Female youth aged 12 to 24 and youth of both sexes aged 14 to 16 living in states with legalized medical marijuana or recreational marijuana between 2000 and 2019 had higher rates of death by suicide than youth in states with no such laws, according to a report in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“The findings translate to nearly 5,000 excess suicide deaths of female adolescents and young adults related to medical marijuana and recreational marijuana legalization,” the report claims. “Given dramatic shifts in cannabis policy over the past 20 years, it is important for clinicians and policymakers to understand potential downstream public health outcomes related to changing cannabis policy.”

Flashback: Second Thoughts on Pot: “‘Yeah, they all smoke.’ ‘Well . . . other things too, right?’ ‘Sometimes. But they all smoke.’”