The new UN World Drug report makes one thing clear: Americans really like lighting up. More Americans are using marijuana each year as the United States continues to decriminalize and legalize pot use, the UN announced in a statement on June 26.
Over the past five years marijuana use has consistently increased in the U.S. The UN attributes this to lower perceived risk of marijuana use. However, the number of people seeking treatment for marijuana-related illnesses has risen every year. This suggests that as the U.S. continues to legalize and decriminalize marijuana, more people will overuse and suffer from marijuana overdose.
A survey published in the UN report showed a slight uptick in the amount of children in eighth to 12th grade in the United States who have used pot. Some 12.7% of eighth graders said they used pot in 2013, compared with only 10.9% in 2008.
Laws about marijuana in the United States have become more lax in recent years. Medical marijuana is already legal in 22 states. In 2012, Colorado and Washington state both passed a bill legalizing marijuana use, becoming the first states to completely legalize pot. The UN report said that "It is too early to understand the impact of these changes on recreational and problematic use of cannabis" in health, crime, and cost to the public.
However, the report says it is likely that due to decreased perception of risk and increased availability, it will most likely lead to more youths using marijuana. There have already been a small but growing number of children in the Colorado area hospitalized for accidental consumption of edible marijuana. Edible marijuana may seem harmless; some children may not even realize the food is laced with THC. There is also the concern of edible marijuana finding its way into schools, where young people have access to it: the New York Times wrote about this problem earlier this year in January.
Edible marijuana can also be harmful to adults, because they can quickly consume too much of the drug without realizing and overdose. The saving grace of marijuana is that in most cases, the body will metabolize THC without leading to serious illness, even in children. An overdose may lead someone to be sick for some time, but it does not have the same risk for overdose fatality as a drug like heroin.
Pot is cheaper in the United States, too. The UN report said that taking into account purchasing power of different world currencies, pot is relatively cheap in the Americas. It is least expensive worldwide in Africa and South Asia. As pot grows cheaper and more accessible in the U.S., lawmakers may have to use extra caution to weigh the value of extra taxes from marijuana against the added health risk. The UN report warned, "Tax revenues from retail cannabis sales are expected to provide public revenue. However, expected revenue will need to be cautiously weighed against the costs of prevention and health care."
