Across the major racial/ethnic groups, we found that the majority of adults with a CUD had cannabis dependence, indicating a need for treatment. Screening, intervention, and referral to treatment efforts may target some groups with elevated odds of CUD, such as blacks, native-Americans, and mixed-race adults, as well as less educated adults. Future work can examine how legalization differentially affects racial/ethnic populations. Adjusted analyses showed a small increase in cannabis dependence in 2013 vs. 2005 and indicated an increased trend in monthly CU and weekly CU in the total adult sample and among cannabis users. The increase in cannabis potency signifies enhanced harms of chronic CU (e.g., addiction, cannabis-involved fatal accidents) (Freeman and Swift, 2016). These findings from a very large sample reinforce the need to monitor unintended consequences of cannabis laws, especially for the faster growing racial/ethnic populations.
