New research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has found that teenagers living in ZIP codes with a medical cannabis dispensary are less likely to have used cannabis. The findings, based on the 2018 Illinois Youth Survey, showed that 18.3% of teenagers living in areas with a dispensary reported having used cannabis during the previous year, compared with 22.4% of those who did not. Fewer teenagers with access to a dispensary also reported having used cannabis during the previous 30 days (12% vs 15.6%). The survey, conducted before recreational cannabis was legalised in January 2020, raises questions about the effect of dispensaries on teenage substance use. Doug Smith, the director of the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois, said the findings were a “head-scratcher” and did not offer an obvious explanation. The survey suggests that cannabis use increased as teenagers matured, regardless of whether there was a dispensary in their area.
