Legalized marijuana: Language-associated knowledge of laws and risk perceptions among Latinos

ABSTRACT

This study examines the extent to which knowledge of recreational marijuana laws, health effects, and perceptions of risk for marijuana use differ between Spanish- and English-speaking Latino survey respondents from a registry of Colorado adults. Spanish-speaking Latino respondents (n = 47) had less accurate knowledge of laws permitting use of marijuana than English-speaking Latino respondents (n = 154), while reporting greater agreement with negative health effects and higher perception of risk associated with marijuana use. The results suggest that efforts to communicate health and informational messaging to the public about legalized marijuana should consider linguistic variations when tailoring campaigns for Latino audiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Adults
• language differences
• Latino
• marijuana

Notes

Registry volunteers and decliners are similar in sex, prevalence of self-reported diabetes or high blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and smoking status. Registry members are more likely than decliners to report high cholesterol or a mental illness diagnosis, to be White, aged 45–64, a college graduate, or self-identified gay, lesbian or bisexual and to have income at or above 200% of the federal poverty level.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by a contract with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (Sheana Bull, Principal Investigator; Brooks-Russell; Levinson; Li). The study sponsors had no role in determining study design; data collection, analysis, or interpretation; writing the report; or the decision to submit the report for publication. No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this article.