title: Young People's More Permissive Views About Marijuana: Local Impact of State Laws or National Trend?
abstract: To determine whether state medical marijuana laws "send the wrong message," that is, have a local influence on the views of young people about the risks of using marijuana.
  
  
  
  We performed multilevel, serial, cross-sectional analyses on 10 annual waves of the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2004-2013) nationally and for states with marijuana laws using individual- and state-level controls.
  
  
  
  Living in medical marijuana states was associated with more permissive views regarding marijuana across 5 different measures. However, these associations became non-statistically significant after we adjusted for state-level differences. By contrast, there was a consistent and significant national time trend toward more permissive attitudes, which was less pronounced among children of middle school age than it was among their older counterparts.
  
  
  
  Passing medical marijuana laws does not seem to directly affect the views of young people in medical marijuana states. However, there is a national trend toward young people taking more permissive views about marijuana independent of any effects within states.
authors.affiliation: All of the authors are with the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Laura A. Schmidt is also with the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Joanne Spetz is also with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: Laura A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: All of the authors are with the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Laura A. Schmidt is also with the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Joanne Spetz is also with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: Laurie M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.affiliation: All of the authors are with the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Laura A. Schmidt is also with the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Joanne Spetz is also with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spetz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D064086:Medical Marijuana; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D064086:Medical Marijuana