The tide of medical-marijuana legalization making its way through American states is leading to a notable uptick in the birth of babies, according to a new paper published by the National Bureau for Economic Research.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 33 states and Washington, D.C., allow the once verboten drug to be used for various health-related reasons. And in these states, the researchers—Michele Baggio and David Simon of the University of Connecticut and Alberto Chong of Georgia State University—found an uptick in marijuana use.
And when more people smoke marijuana, they get friskier and, apparently, more careless. After legalization, there’s “increased frequency of sexual intercourse, decreased purchase of condoms and suggestive evidence on decreased condom use during sex,” the authors wrote in the paper.
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