According to the report, published in the Journal of Applied Economics, the legalization of medical marijuana (MML) “reduces inactive time and increases sleep, consistent with medical marijuana’s health benefits.” In plain terms, parents are feeling better, sleeping better, and, lo and behold, spending more time with their children.
“Our results suggest that MML can have a significant positive impact on the development of children via increased parenting time,” the study concludes. The magic window? For kids under the age of six, a period researchers describe as prime time for reaping the long-term benefits of parental investment. In other words, it’s when your little one might actually remember you taught them how to tie their shoes.
However, there’s a catch. These benefits only come into play if parents don’t misuse cannabis. As the study notes, the real winners in the parenting-time sweepstakes are “those less likely to abuse marijuana.” So, if you’re a responsible user, you might just be nailing that bedtime story routine.
“Marijuana can provide medical benefits for those suffering from chronic pain, sleep disorders, depression, and PTSD,” the report highlights, explaining how healthier parents can lead to better interaction with their kids. But, of course, it also gives a gentle reminder: “Positive effects are not guaranteed.” So don’t expect a magical transformation into Super Parent overnight.
The study was co-authored by Cynthia Bansak from St. Lawrence University and Jun Hyung Kim from the South Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Both also represent the Institute of Labor Economics in Germany. These brainy folks explain that legalizing medical marijuana leads to more quality parenting time, especially activities that don’t require too much parental effort—like playing with the child or keeping an eye on them while sneaking in an episode of your favorite show.
Interestingly, they found that this increase was more significant for parents with younger children (those under six, no less). So if you’re chasing a toddler around, you might want to send a thank-you note to your local medical marijuana policy makers. For parents of teenagers, sorry—you’re on your own.
When it comes to defining “active childcare,” the researchers break it down to the time spent actively playing with kids, schooling activities, or taking them to the doctor. “Passive childcare,” on the other hand, is when you’re with your kid but also doing something else. You know, like folding laundry while watching them turn the living room into a jungle gym. Both kinds of care, it turns out, are good for child development, though active care gets the gold star.
The study used data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which involves participants filling out daily time diaries in 15-minute increments. (Because if there’s one thing parents have in abundance, it’s 15-minute intervals to carefully record how they spent the day, right?)
Researchers also found that MML levels the playing field a bit when comparing parents with varying levels of education. For example, they noted that an extra 4 minutes of active parenting time represented about 12.5% of the gap between parents with some college education and those with less. And hey, 4 minutes can be the difference between “Go ask your mom” and an actual conversation.
Interestingly, the effects were most noticeable for parents with younger children and during weekends, when, presumably, everyone is more chill. The biggest activity increases were in “playing with the child” and “looking after the child,” with little to no impact on arts and crafts or organizing and planning. Turns out, even medical marijuana can’t make you want to sit through glitter-glue projects.
The study also threw in some eyebrow-raising insights: Men seemed to benefit more from legalization in terms of spending time with their kids, which could be related to previous findings that men tend to increase cannabis use more than women after legalization. Also, in more religious states (where churches abound), parents tended to increase their passive childcare time more significantly. Maybe the Sunday sermons are really hitting home?
One thing the researchers didn’t find was a negative impact on productive time—no evidence that parents were shirking housework or taking extra smoke breaks instead of doing laundry. In fact, parents seemed to just cut down on inefficient time use, without compromising on work or household chores.
Of course, there are some limitations. The ATUS data doesn’t ask about individual marijuana use, so we can’t definitively link parenting improvements to actual cannabis consumption. Plus, as the authors point out, the U.S. is also the leader in opioid consumption, and MML might be helping some parents shift from more harmful opioids to medical marijuana.
While research on marijuana’s role in parenting is still relatively new, another study last summer found that states with medical marijuana legalization saw a nearly 20% drop in foster care admissions due to parental drug misuse. Interestingly, the same wasn’t true for recreational marijuana.
So, in short, medical marijuana might be the unexpected hero for some parents—helping them feel better, sleep better, and spend a few extra precious minutes with their kids. Whether it leads to fewer glitter-glue nightmares remains to be seen.
Photo by: willsantt
