The perceived risk of using marijuana has decreased in recent years in Colorado. In some instances this appeared prior to 2009 (e.g., “no-risk” among young adults, 18-25 year olds), but in others there appears to have been a change in Colorado around 2009. For example, perception of “great-risk” decreased between 2007-8 and 2009-10 for other adults (26 years old or older) from 45 to 31%. In addition, for those adult Coloradans (26 years and older) there was a significant increase in the perception that marijuana was fairly/very easy to obtain and among young adults past-year marijuana use increased significantly from 35% to 43% between 2007-8 and 2010-11. For adolescents and young adults, marijuana abuse/dependence prevalence increased non-significantly in Colorado between 2007-8 and 2009-10; for both groups, by 2010-11 Colorado had significantly higher prevalence of past-year marijuana abuse/dependence than NMMS. Among other adults (26 years old or older) near daily use of marijuana became significantly more prevalent in Colorado compared to NMMS in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
