MAY 8, 2025
A review of data collected by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) from fiscal years (FY) 2019-2024 shows a decrease in marijuana-related intake complaints for youth since FY 2021.
In FY 2024, there were 1,904 marijuana-related complaints, a 30% decrease from FY 2019. There was a 75% decrease in marijuana-related complaints from FY 2020 to FY 2021, coinciding with marijuana law changes and COVID-19 impacts.
For youth with any juvenile intake complaint between FY 2019 and FY 2024 who indicated they used marijuana at least once, the average age at first use remained stable around 13.3 years old. However, the frequency of use for these youth increased from an average of 12.3 times during the previous three months in FY 2019 to 15.7 times during the previous three months in FY 2024. Youth with marijuana-related complaints had a similar increase in past-three-month use, increasing from an average of 15.7 times in FY 2019 to 21.4 times in FY 2024. Youth with marijuana-related complaints had a higher past-three-month use rate compared to youth with any juvenile intake complaint across all FYs.
There was a shift in the most common source of marijuana-related complaints for youth between FY 2019 and FY 2024, with marijuana-related complaints from law enforcement decreasing from 83% to 44% while marijuana-related complaints from schools increased from 17% to 54%.
The demographic profile of youth with marijuana-related cases also changed from FY 2019 to FY 2024, with the percentage of females increasing 25% to 30%. Race remained relatively stable with approximately 55% White and 30% Black. The age distribution of youth with marijuana-related cases shifted, with a greater percentage of 13-15 year-olds and lower percentage of 16-17 year-olds in FY 2022 and FY 2024 compared to FY 2019. There was a large decrease in the number of older youth ages 16-17 with marijuana-related cases, from 1,699 (68%) in FY 2019 to 778 (48%) in FY 2024.
