Abstract

During the last two decades, many U.S. states have legalized marijuana use, and the effect of this policy on youth marijuana use has emerged as a critical concern for policymakers and academic studies. However, the empirical findings from previous studies are not consistent and even conflict with each other. This study hypothesizes that these discrepancies should be caused by demographic differences in youth marijuana use. For the data analysis, we employed nationally representative survey data, “Continuing Study of American Youth - 12th-Grade Survey,” from 2012 to 2020 and examined the temporal changes in youth marijuana use by gender and race groups. We also introduced logistic regressions to clarify the effect of legalization after controlling for personal and contextual characteristics. The results show that as more states have legalized recreational marijuana, marijuana use among female youths has increased significantly, while that of males has not changed. Recreational marijuana use also positively influences white and black youths; however, its impact on Hispanic youths is negative. With these findings, we conclude that different attitudes, perceptions, and circumstances should cause distinctive effects of marijuana legalization across gender and race groups. Future studies should consider these demographic differences in youth marijuana use for more effective intervention efforts.