Published 18 January 2022 at 14.49
Domestic. Whether cannabis is criminalized or decriminalized does not seem to affect how many young people and young adults use the drug. This is the conclusion of researchers at Karolinska Institutet in a new study published in PLOS ONE.
Like the article p & aring; Facebook
Researchers have used data from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom from 1994–2017.
Cannabis use proved to vary greatly during the study period and between the different countries. But on average, use was stable or slightly increasing in countries where legislation did not change during the period.
On the other hand, average cannabis use decreased after changes in legislation – whether it became milder or stricter.
“Our results do not support the fact that cannabis legislation has a significant impact on the prevalence of cannabis use for recreational purposes among young people and young adults in Europe,” the researchers write.