Kids in Washington state don’t perceive pot to be any easier to get since it was legalized, according to the abstract of a longitudinal study recently presented to the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 Meeting. Fifty-five percent of kids surveyed as part of the 2014 Washington State Healthy Use Survey reported that cannabis was “easy” to get, compared to 54 percent in 2010. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has set foot in a pot store, where IDs are checked religiously.

While many people may have feared that legalization would make it easier for kids to access pot, that apparently hasn’t been the case. In theory, legalizing weed would make it more difficult for underage consumption by reducing the need for the black market (but more on that later).

When I was growing up in Seattle, it was ridiculously easy to get weed because of the black market economy. One of my friends wandered the halls of our high school with a duffel bag full of it. If you wanted to buy some pot, all you had to do was catch him at lunch.

Getting booze was much more of an ordeal. In fact, to get liquor, I used to have to bargain in weed. I’d smoke out this one older skateboarder, hang out in a car talking about nothing for half an hour, wait for another half hour while he bought us cheap vodka (what were you doing in there, dude?), and give him $5. That’s a whole lotta rigamarole for some Smirnoff.

Also consider that the overall interest in pot has grown considerably since the onset of legalization. As Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes recently told the CBC, people buy the shit out of legal weed, no matter the price. The more we produce, the more they buy. Legalization has, without a doubt, increased the overall number of people in Washington actively using pot, and these numbers prove that it has done so without increasing teenagers’ access to weed.

Unfortunately, the black market, by the state’s own shaky numbers, is still thriving (there are some theories why), and it’s still the easiest place for kids to get pot. Unlike the much-maligned 21-and-over delivery services, “the plug” ain’t checkin’ IDs.

As the black market is slowly eclipsed by the legal market, I bet we’ll see these numbers get lower and lower every year. In other words, even if you’re an anti-drug crusader with three rebellious teenagers under your roof, you DO want a pot store in your neighborhood. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.