Objectives: 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.
Methods: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusions: 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.