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The new two-year state-level numbers from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health came out last month and, judging by the reaction in the news media, it seems that legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington has turned everyone there into bong-toting pot zombies shuffling endlessly in search of strains, STRAAAIIINS!
“Marijuana Use Jumps in Colorado, Making it Second Highest Across US,” declared the International Business Times.
“Colorado stoners storm up US marijuana-user rankings; Washington state use surges 20%,” intones the Associated Press.
But when you look closer at the numbers from the 2012-2013 National Survey on Drug Use & Health (NSDUH), there are some remarkable surprises that most of the news media missed in their hurry to report that legalization increased marijuana use. For analysis, HIGH TIMES entered all the figures from 2010-2011 and the 2012-2013 NSDUHs into a spreadsheet. We colored the two legal states in dark green shading. Medical marijuana states are shaded light green if they allow home cultivation or are in green text if they do not. States where marijuana is illegal are in red text, like so:
So, for all marijuana users age 12 and older, Colorado jumped from 10.41 percent monthly use to 12.7 percent monthly use, an overall change (delta) of 22 percent; that’s the figure the news media have salivated over. But if we perform the descending sort on delta, we get a stunning surprise…
Of all US states, Georgia had the greatest increase in monthly pot use, almost a 30 percent increase, well above Colorado’s 22 percent. Missouri’s near-20 percent increase was only slightly behind Washington State’s increase of 20.27 percent. There were as many prohibition states in the top ten with double-digit percentage increases (Georgia, Missouri, Utah and Virginia) as medical marijuana states (Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire and Hawaii).
Be AWARE truthisscary.com