Where Weed Is Legal, College Students Use It More and Binge Drink Less, Oregon State University Study Finds

The longer the substance has been legal, the study showed, the higher the usage rates climbed.

Several tour buses allow passengers to smoke cannabis between Portland dispensaries. (Wesley Lapointe)
By Tess Riski

An Oregon State University study published Monday showed that college students in states where cannabis is legal reported higher usage than students in states where it remains illegal.

That's an intuitive finding. Perhaps more interesting: Using the same data, researchers determined that students 21 and older living in legalized states showed a 6 percent drop in binge drinking compared to their counterparts in states where cannabis is still illegal.

The study surveyed 850,000 students nationwide. It included data from 135 colleges in the U.S. where cannabis was legalized by 2018, and 41 states and 454 colleges where recreational use is not legal.

Students in states where the substance is legalized were 18 percent more likely to have used cannabis in the last 30 days in comparison to students living in states where it is not legal.

The longer the substance has been legal, the study showed, the higher the usage rates climbed. In early-adoption states where cannabis has been legal for six years, the study says, students were 46 percent more likely to use cannabis than students it states where it is illegal.

The data was collected from the National College Health Assessment Survey.

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