Study: Marijuana Use Unaffected By DecriminalizationMay 6, 2004
Research Summary
Researchers looking at the U.S. and the Netherlands say they found no evidence that marijuana decriminalization laws lead to greater use of the drug.In the first study of its kind, marijuana use in Amsterdam was compared to that in San Francisco, Calif., to determine whether the punishment for marijuana possession deters its use.
"We compared representative samples of experienced marijuana users to see whether the lawful availability of marijuana did, in fact, lead to the problems critics of the Dutch system have claimed," said Craig Reinarman, study director and professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. "We found no evidence that it does. In fact, we found consistently strong similarities in patterns of marijuana use, despite vastly different national drug policies."
Reinarman co-authored the report, "The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and in San Francisco," with Peter Cohen, director of the Centre for Drug Research (CEDRO) at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Hendrien Kaal, an instructor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
The research, which was based on responses to questionnaires by individuals who had used marijuana at least 25 times, found that the average age of first pot use was 16.95 years in Amsterdam and 16.43 in San Francisco. The mean age in which individuals used the drug more than once a month was 19.11 years in Amsterdam and 18.81 years in San Francisco.
"In the United States, marijuana policy is based on the assertion that strict penalties are the best way to inhibit use," said Reinarman. But the researcher said that the findings suggest that drug policies appear to have less impact on marijuana use than originally believed.
"The results of this study shift the burden of proof now to those who would arrest hundreds of thousands of Americans each year on the grounds that it deters use," said Reinarman.
The study's findings are published in the May 2004 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The research was funded jointly by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Dutch Ministry of Health. A press release further describing the study is online at http://press.ucsc.edu
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