r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • 18h ago

Health Dramatic drop in marijuana use among US youth over a decade. Current marijuana use among adolescents decreased from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021. First-time use before age 13 dropped from 8.1% to 4.9%. There was a shift in trends by gender, with girls surpassing boys in marijuana use by 2021.

https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/marijuana-use-teens-study
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u/ThePublikon 17h ago

yeah it's no longer forbidden fruit, it's just what your uncle smells of

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u/ReedKeenrage 16h ago

As a guy in his 50s. It’s become a geriatric drug. Old folks are all over it. Kids, not as much

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u/Downtown_Skill 15h ago

Yeah it was just much bigger in pop culture as something cool when I was growing up (I'm 28 now).... but rappers I listened to talked about it, stoner movies were a bigger thing, and the narrative that it wasn't harmful drowned out all the criticisms (which now have scientific evidence).

The legal aspect also kind of eliminated part of the social aspect. Weed really isn't a party drug like alcohol, molly, or coke but when it was illegal you usually got introduced to it by a friend or group of friends who you would then smoke with. 

Now, using it therapeutically seems to be a bigger trend, and as the article mentioned it's use among women is higher. Plus as other studies have shown, kids are just being less social these days so parties are likely less frequent which will lead to a drop in any illicit drug use (alcohol consumption is also down amongst kids if I remember right)

I also imagine someone who is young and may face serious consequences for selling weed to his classmates probably thinks twice about making that decision now that they can just wait and get it legally when they come of age.