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Dissertation
DAZED AND CONFUSED: HOW CRIMINALIZATION AND LEGALIZATION OF CANNABIS SHAPE USE, PERCEIVED RISKS, AND REPORTED AVAILABILITY AMONG YOUTH
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
2026
Abstract
This dissertation examines how shifts in United States cannabis policy correspond with youth cannabis use, perceived risk, and perceived availability. Over the past century, cannabis has moved from an agricultural crop and medicine to a criminalized drug and, more recently, to a regulated retail commodity in many states. Despite these changes, federal prohibition remains in place, producing a fragmented legal landscape in which states operate under varying policy contexts. At the same time, public support for legalization has reached historic highs while youth cannabis use, a central concern in policy debates, has remained relatively stable and, in some cases, declined. This tension motivates the study’s central question: how have youth figured into the development of U.S. cannabis policy historically, and how do contemporary policy contexts correspond with youth behaviors and attitudes toward cannabis use?To address these questions, the dissertation integrates historical and quantitative approaches. First, an archival analysis traces how concerns about youth shaped cannabis policy development from early twentieth-century prohibition through the Era of War and into the Era of Medical-only and Adult-use Legalization. Second, two quantitative studies using restricted, nationally representative Monitoring the Future survey data examine associations between policy context, perceived risk, perceived availability, and youth cannabis use across multiple consumption methods.
The quantitative findings estimated using multivariate regression techniques indicate that legalized policy contexts correspond with higher odds of edible use, vaping, and multi-method consumption, while differences in smoking and frequent use are limited once perceived risk of cannabis use is considered. Perceived risk emerges as a strong correlate of youth cannabis use across all consumption methods, whereas policy context shows little consistent association with youths’ perceptions of harm. At the state level, perceived availability is associated with higher prevalence of smoking, edible use, and frequent cannabis use, while retail storefronts correspond with higher prevalence of several consumption methods, particularly vaping.
These results suggest that youth cannabis use reflects broader social environments and cultural attitudes surrounding cannabis rather than policy change alone, highlighting the importance of situating drug use within shifting social contexts.
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Details
- Title
- DAZED AND CONFUSED: HOW CRIMINALIZATION AND LEGALIZATION OF CANNABIS SHAPE USE, PERCEIVED RISKS, AND REPORTED AVAILABILITY AMONG YOUTH
- Creators
- Christian P Maynard
- Contributors
- Jennifer Schwartz (Advisor)Thomas Rotolo (Committee Member)Jennifer Sherman (Committee Member)Mary Stohr (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Sociology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 224
- Identifiers
- 99901394104801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation