By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

July 7, 2015 -- Viewing billboards advertising medical marijuana could influence younger teens to try the drug, said a RAND Corp. study released Monday.

Researchers at the Santa Monica-based research institute surveyed more than 8,000 middle school students and found that those who viewed any type of advertisements for medical marijuana, whether on billboards or storefronts, were twice as likely to say they plan to try pot in the future as peers who reported never seeing an ad, RAND officials said.

Like ads for cigarettes and alcohol, advertisements for medical marijuana could provide insights into how society can better educate teens about the risks of marijuana use, said RAND lead researcher Elizabeth D’Amico.

 “As prohibitions on marijuana ease and sales of marijuana become more visible, it’s important to think about how we need to change the way we talk to young people about the risk posed by the drug,” she said in a press release announcing the study’s findings.

 “The lessons we have learned from alcohol -- a substance that is legal but not necessarily safe -- may provide guidance abut approaches we need to take toward marijuana.”

Marijuana use has increased across the United States in recent years, according RAND, with the number of frequent users increasing by 40 percent since 2006. Medical marijuana dispensaries, which are legal in California, increasingly advertise on billboards, in newspapers and even on television, according to RAND.

Information collected from 8,214 sixth- seventh- and eighth-grade students at 12 Southern California schools in 2010 and 2011 gauged their exposure to medical marijuana ads, pot use, and whether they ever intended using the drug in the future, said RAND.

In 2011, 22 percent of students reported seeing at least one ad for medical marijuana within the past three months, 30 percent more than the previous year. Those who said they viewed medical marijuana ads also reported they intended to use the drug in the future, said RAND.

According to RAND, use of pot among early adolescents has been associated with poor school performance, neuropsychological performance deficits and further use of other illicit drugs.

The researchers, however, could not pinpoint whether the young teens surveyed who were predisposed to use pot paid more attention to marijuana ads or “whether the advertising may have influenced” their attitudes toward the drug.

 “Given that advertising typically tells only one side of the story, prevention efforts must begin to better education youth about how medical marijuana is used, while also emphasizing the negative effects that marijuana can have on the brain and performance,” said D’Amico.

RAND said the study, the first to explore a link between marijuana advertising and youth behavior, was published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behavior.