Much to the chagrin of the "Just Say No" crowd, that theory about cannabis being a gateway drug just doesn't fly, according to research coming out of the
University of Colorado Boulder.
In 2018, CU researchers partnered with the
University of Minnesota's Center for Twin Family Research to study sets of twins who live in Colorado, where recreational cannabis sales have been legal since 2014, and some who live in Minnesota, where recreational pot is still banned. Over the next few years,
researchers asked around 2,500 sets of twins, both users and non-users, an extensive set of questions to assess the effects of marijuana legalization.
After four years of data collection and analysis, the researchers recently reported that residents in both the legal and non-legal states had around the same rate of substance abuse or cognitive, psychological, social, relationship or financial problems. And cannabis use may even reduce alcohol-related problems, according to their findings.
To learn more about the results, we interviewed lead researcher