Researchers From Washington State University Say Cannabis Use Has Declined Post Legalization

Washington moved forward with legalization several years ago and since that time researchers suggest that there hasn't been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of users around the state.

With teens specifically, cannabis use has dropped with high school and middle school students according to a recent study that was conducted by researchers at WSU.

Other studies investigating the prevalence of cannabis use following legalization have found similar results, they've also seen declinesin areas like Colorado and California after they legalized as well.

Just because something becomes legalized, doesn't mean that tomorrow thousands or millions of people will go out and start doing it. Authorities might want us to believe that this would be the scenario if we ever reversed the war on drugs and instead tried to avoid policing personal consumption habits, but it isn't the truth.

It isn't some words on a piece of paper that are keeping millions of teens from becoming drug addicts at the moment; it's their own personal choices and individual trials.

Addicts should be looked at as patients, not criminals, they need help, not punishment. And undoing the restrictions surrounding their consumption habits would help to start establishing that environment that can provide the help that they need. Punishment has proven incapable of making any significant dent in eradicating the problem.

Those who are determined to use haven't let the restrictions stand in their way, they've simply had to pay a higher price.

Even if studies showed the opposite, that cannabis use had gone up, that still shouldn't be justification enough to infringe on the rights of adults to consume. What goes into our bodies is up to us and us alone, bureaucrats don't need to get involved despite how much they'd like to. And though we ourselves my want to live a certain way and feel comfortable suggesting that all others do the same and follow, we should recognize their inherent right not to and the illegitimacy in trying to use violence to alter that outcome; to force them to live to our standard rather than their own.

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