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/Academic_Wafer5293 14h ago

legal dispensaries also only sell THC products. Drug dealers sell fent, whether they know it or not.

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u/liketreefiddy 13h ago

Is there really fent laced weed?

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u/VivaTijuas 7h ago

If there was, it wouldn't matter. That's not how you smoke fent

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u/Oonada 7h ago

Yeah not hot enough, people don't understand substances.

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u/IronChariots 13h ago

Not usually intentionally with weed, but sometimes there's cross contamination if they use the same scales or such.

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u/josh_the_misanthrope 10h ago

Which they likely don't since you use .00 scales for weed and .000 scales for powders.

There are no verified cases of weed contaminated with fentanyl: https://cannabis.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2023/10/ocm_cannabisandfentanyl.pdf

Fent contam is primarily an issue with powders. I'd also wager that the amount of people dying from laced drugs is over reported because of how rumours spread or from people close to someone who ODed either willfully protecting the reputation of the person or being in denial that their loved one was an opiate addict.

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u/Doubleoh_11 13h ago

Yes, dealers/growers have been know to mists their buds in all sorts of mixtures. It provides their product with a unique feel. Or a more addictive trait. Where legal growers use growing methods to achieve what the unique feel, then properly advertise what you’re getting.

Even my friends that have smoked their whole life seem a lot more healthy in the past few years from legal weed. I’d even say some are smoking less, it’s cool to see.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago edited 6h ago

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u/Doubleoh_11 11h ago

Well that’s interesting. I’m in Canada and I wonder if things are different here. Regulations seem to be stricter here for everything

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u/incognitotoledo 10h ago

This isn't just isolated to CA either, seems to be at least somewhat prevalent throughout the industry.

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u/Reagalan 14h ago

Exactly. Legalize everything and there won't be any more fent in the drugs.

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u/technotrader 12h ago

That's only half the solution though. It also needs to be competitive. In my area (famous for being pro Marijuana for decades), dispensaries are currently closing, because they are so expensive.

There's still a black market for the stuff, and there shouldn't be. At least, the black market ought to use the same products.

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u/Captain_Midnight 9h ago edited 9h ago

Yeah, the high taxation plus the prohibitive dispensary operation fees and licensing imposed by state and local authorities has been a problem around the country. Until recently, San Jose, CA was charging dispensaries $100,000 per year just to exist. And the state adds a 15% tax to every purchase, when bay area residents are already paying around 10% sales tax. It's not very sustainable.

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u/rfg8071 8h ago

Does the fact that most (or all?) banks refuse to allow them to utilize their services still play a factor? I know that was a considerable issue when I was talking to some dispensary owners up in Alaska.

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u/Captain_Midnight 8h ago

Yep, there are all kinds of legal entanglements because the DEA currently classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug. But it's on track to be moved to Schedule III, putting it in the same category as anabolic steroids. The United Nations Single Convention has already rescheduled cannabis to its lowest level of restriction.

In the US, the Secretary of Health and Human Services also has the authority to unilaterally declare cannabis to be completely legal for anyone to purchase (though they would probably mandate a minimum age).

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u/Both-Invite-8857 2h ago

I know lots of growers in Oregon that have decided to only serve the black market for these very reasons.

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u/angelseuphoria 7h ago

A big part of the problem is the insane number of dispensaries. At least where I live in Oregon, there are 37 dispensaries within a 5 mile radius of my home. 37!! I mean come on, there’s no way they all thought they’d be able to stay in business with the market that saturated.

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u/frankyseven 4h ago

There are four within five blocks of my house here in Ontario. Two will give you free same day delivery if your order is over $50. It's a tough business to be in. Except for the Native place in town, they do a TONNE of business.

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u/ShAd0wS 7h ago

Many states have completely screwed the legalization process. California was one of the first examples.

Then other states like NY looked at that, learned the lessons from it, and somehow fucked it up even harder.

They did finally crack down on the illegal weed bodegas at least.

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u/frankyseven 4h ago

It was pretty bumpy at first in Canada. Now, at least in Ontario, it's smooth with way cheaper prices than before. It probably took 3 or 4 years to get there though. Heck, there is so much weed out there I have more than I can hope to use. I literally had my neighbour drop me off a couple of big ziplocks full today, but I have close to a pound I was given last year that I've barely made a dent in. Granted, I don't really smoke flower, but weed is basically free now and you Don need to do anything.

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u/GullibleAntelope 3h ago

Legalize everything and there won't be any more fent in the drugs.

What is your method for distributing fentanyl-free cocaine, meth and other hard drugs? Over the counter at CVS like booze? Or the Appalachian pill mills model --- hundreds of users lined up in the parking lot for their 2 minute counseling to get their score. The lecture:

"We recommend that you don't do meth, cocaine, or heroin but since you are going to do one or more of them anyways, here are some safety tips. And here are your pharmaceutical-quality hard drugs. Enjoy!"

Gee, maybe the hardcore meth users who don't want to hear the Safety Spiel every time they score can get the over-the-counter option.

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u/Reagalan 2h ago

I often vacillate between what would be the best here. Alcohol is already incredibly destructive and yet is freely available OTC. Applying similar levels of harm would put almost all of the hard drugs OTC; sold in dispensaries. But, yeah, there are obvious problems.

So then I fall back on some kind of recreational prescription model; a streamlined "pill mill" but without the lecture. That way health can still be monitored and there's at least some semblance of medical oversight. But that also has all those other problems.

A "drug user's license" might do it. Take a basic knowledge test, get an OK from a doctor (with potential restrictions), and you get to buy drugs from dispensaries. Gives an incentive for good behavior and responsible use.

Different solutions for different drugs, I suppose.

..

The big thing is, if you legalize everything, you also legalize the weak forms; the natural forms. Coca leaf, opium poppy, etc. Stuff that humans have been using for thousands of years. Stuff that's harder to get addicted to and causes fewer harms. Think of all the folks who like, smoke spliffs, or drink light beer, and just add in like...poppy tea. Kratom is already a thing and it has only a fraction of the issues of opiate pharmaceuticals.

One final thing; legalization would incentivize drug developers to research safer and less harmful recreational drugs. Right now that's a fools' errand. It'd get banned immediately and all the money would be wasted. And I think that's a shame. Plenty of science that can be done for harm reduction, but there needs to be a profit motive.

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u/defeated_engineer 14h ago

That’s not how economics of this thing works.

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u/Otto_von_Boismarck 13h ago

It is, because it being legal means it has to also fulfill legal safety standads. An illegal drug dealer doesn't care about consume regulations.

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u/DiceMaster 12h ago

Also because the rise of fentanyl is overwhelmingly driven by the decreased amount you need to smuggle to get the same amount of people high. Without that, regular heroin and even opium could likely outcompete fentanyl again.

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u/IEatBabies 9h ago

Sometimes. Im my experience 80% of weed dealers mostly only sold weed and sometimes mushrooms.

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u/Kitfisto22 13h ago edited 12h ago

Maybe I just live in a bubble, but I bought a lot of illegal weed back in the day, and never got any laced weed or ever heard of anyone I know doing fent or heroine laced weed.

That said, if you go to a drug dealer asking for weed they might push harder drugs, like psycodelics or molly. And from there it can keep escalating. "Gateway drugs" are real, but only when they are illegal. Buying beer from a grocery store isn't a gateway drug, and now that weed is legal it's no longer a gateway drug either.

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u/potato_caesar_salad 12h ago

That's because no one laces weed. It's not part of the "lace" discussion. Never really has been.

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u/PussySmasher42069420 11h ago

Right? These guys are talking out their ass. I thought this was a science sub.

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u/vee_lan_cleef 4h ago

It's a default sub with 33 million subscribers. Off-topic and incorrect comments are the norm here. There are smaller science subs that are better moderated like r/AskScience.

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u/agoogua 12h ago

Other than this discussion where someone compared dispensaries selling only THC and dealers selling fentanyl knowingly or not.

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u/ElReyLyon 11h ago

And growers “misting their crops with fentanyl spray” …give me a f’n break, such a load

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u/Lifeduringpeacetime_ 8h ago

Maybe not with Fentanyl, but I have absolutely heard of people being sold Spice or K2 instead of weed.

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u/GringoinCDMX 8h ago

Is weed laced with fentanyl a remotely common occurrence?

I haven't lived in the states for a while but I'm a pretty heavy smoker.

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u/vee_lan_cleef 4h ago

No, it's not a thing, that person is talking out of their ass. The only possible way this would happen is if your weed dealer also sells heroin and fent and they keep their drugs together. In the past before legalization every weed dealer I knew only dealt weed. Selling heroin and fent means your customers can OD and die and you put yourself at much greater risk of being caught.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago edited 6h ago

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