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MARIJUANA MOMENT
DAILY MARIJUANA USE IN U.S. IS NOW MORE COMMON THAN DAILY ALCOHOL DRINKING, NEW
STUDY FINDS
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POLITICS
DAILY MARIJUANA USE IN U.S. IS NOW MORE COMMON THAN DAILY ALCOHOL DRINKING, NEW
STUDY FINDS
Published
3 seconds ago
on
May 22, 2024
By
Ben Adlin
More Americans now consume cannabis every day than drink alcohol on a daily
basis, according to a newly published study that explores how marijuana use
habits have changed in recent decades. Since 1992, it says, the per capita rate
of daily cannabis consumption in the country has increased nearly 15 times over.
The rise in frequent cannabis use coincides with an increasing number of states
that have ended marijuana prohibition, though the study’s author, Carnegie
Mellon University professor Jonathan Caulkins, says it’s not clear whether
legalization led to increased use or the whether broader consumption by the
public boosted support for policy changes that were later enacted.
While report notes the national marijuana use rate “mirrors changes in policy,
with declines during periods of greater restriction and growth during periods of
policy liberalization,” Caulkins stops short of attributing use patterns to
policy changes themselves.
Teen Marijuana Use Has Declined In Washington Since Legalization
Teen Marijuana Use Has Declined In Washington Since Legalization
Recent data from a survey conducted among teenage students in Washington State
indicates a decline in both lifetime and recent marijuana use over the past few
years. The findings also suggest that underage students' perceived access to
cannabis has generally decreased since the state legalized it for adults in
2012. This contradicts concerns expressed by opponents of the policy change.
In 2023, approximately 8.4% of 10th graders in Washington reported using
marijuana in the past 30 days, a slight increase from 7.2 percent in 2021. But
both of those numbers were sharply lower than pre-legalization numbers. For
instance, in 2010, 20% of 10th graders admitted to using cannabis in the past
month. In King County, the most populous in the state, only 5.5% of 10th
graders reported recent cannabis use in 2023, down from 7.3% in 2021 and 18.1%
in 2010. Similar declines were observed in lifetime marijuana use across
different grade levels surveyed, including 6th, 8th, and 12th grades. "In 2021,
survey data showed a 50% decline in youth cannabis and alcohol use in the past
30-days among 10th graders. The 2023 results show these numbers have remained
relatively stable", said Kristen Haley, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board's
(LCB) public health education liaison. Health officials attribute the
significant drops in substance use between 2018 and 2021 partly to the COVID-19
pandemic. "The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a large decrease, roughly 50%,
in most youth substance use. While the long-term impacts are unknown, in 2023 we
see that substance use has remained relatively stable, both in Washington and
nationally", said Washington State's Department of Health.
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The correlation between legalization and greater use “does not mean policy drove
changes in use,” the report says. “Both could have been manifestations of
changes in underlying culture and attitudes. However, whichever way causal
arrows point, cannabis use now appears to be on a fundamentally different scale
than it was before legalization.”
The rise in daily marijuana use comes after rates hit a record low in the early
1990s.
“Reported cannabis use declined to a nadir in 1992, with partial recovery
through 2008, and substantial increases since then, particularly for measures of
more intensive use,” the new research says. “From 1992 to 2022, there was a
15-fold increase in the per capita rate of reporting daily or near daily use.”
In 2022, for the first time ever, more Americans said they consumed cannabis on
a near-daily basis than alcohol.
The findings draw on data from the federally funded National Survey on Drug Use
and Health, previously known as the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. The
survey has been conducted annually since 1990 and four times before then, in
1979, 1982, 1985 and 1988.
Responses show that while far more Americans drank alcohol daily than consumed
cannabis 20 years ago, those use patterns have radically changed.
“Whereas the 1992 survey recorded 10 times as many daily or near daily alcohol
as cannabis users (8.9 vs. 0.9M),” the study says, “the 2022 survey, for the
first time, recorded more daily and near daily users of cannabis than alcohol
(17.7 vs. 14.7M).”
The research was published on Wednesday in the journal Society for the Study of
Addiction.
Caulkins acknowledges in the paper that some methodological changes have been
made to the federal survey over the years—for example switching from a
paper-based to a digital survey, making minor sampling changes and adding a $30
incentive payment for respondents—and admits the government typically advises
against making comparisons between survey designs. But ultimately he argues his
conclusions are valid.
“The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
discourages comparing rates of use before and after the redesigns,” he writes.
“However, changes in survey wording or methods that make a 10% or 20% difference
in responses are small compared to the much larger changes over the time span
examined here.”
He also notes that changes in politics and social acceptability of marijuana use
may have exaggerated the trend of increasing use.
“Of particular note, willingness to self-report may have increased as cannabis
became normalized, so changes in actual use may be less pronounced than changes
in reported use,” the study says. “On the other hand, cannabis product variety
exploded after state-legalization.”
“Nonetheless, the enormous changes in rates of self reported cannabis use,
particularly of DND [daily or near daily] use, suggest that changes in actual
use have been considerable,” it continues, “and it is striking that
high-frequency cannabis use is now more commonly reported than is high-frequency
drinking.”
Speaking to the Associated Press about the report, Caulkins said that roughly 40
percent of consumers use marijuana on a daily or near daily basis, which he
called “a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical alcohol
use.”
Writing in the Washington Monthly about his findings, Caulkins, joined by
Stanford University professor Keith Humphries, argue that market forces have
also led to significantly more powerful marijuana.
“Legalization and commercialization have produced a spectacular rise in the
potency of marijuana products,” they wrote. “Until the end of the 20th century,
the average potency of seized cannabis never exceeded 5 percent THC, its active
intoxicant. Now, the labeled potency of ‘flower’ sold in state-licensed stores
averages 20-25 percent THC. Extract-based products like vape oils and dabs
routinely exceed 60 percent.”
“Back in the 1990s,” they add, “a person averaging two 0.5-gram joints of 4
percent THC weed per week was consuming about 5 milligrams of THC per day on
average. Today’s daily users average more than 1.5 grams of material that is
20-25 percent THC, which is more than 300 milligrams per day. That is far more
THC than is consumed in typical medical studies of its health effects.”
Caulkins and Humphries point out, however, that “marijuana is becoming something
of an old person’s drug,” emphasizing that frequent cannabis use among youth is
rare.
“On the positive side, the kids are mostly all right,” they said. “Just 2
percent of 12-17 year-old marijuana consumers consume daily or near daily. As a
result, youth account for just 3 percent of the 8.3 billion annual days of
self-reported marijuana use in the country.”
By age group, people aged 35 to 49 consumed more frequently than people 26 to
34, who themselves consumed more frequently than people from 18 to 25 years old.
Overlooking heavy, frequent and long-term use, say Caulkins and Humphries,
increases the risk of harm to users’ memories, concentration and motivation. But
the biggest risk, they warn, “may concern serious and lifelong conditions such
as schizophrenia.”
“Regulators need to take seriously their responsibility to protect the public
from cannabis companies,” they write, noting that the market isn’t led by a
“hippy-led anti-materialist cottage industry” but is instead increasingly
dominated by large corporate players.
“Cannabis isn’t fentanyl, but it isn’t lettuce, either,” the pair conclude in
their Washington Monthly op-ed. “The vastly increased use of the drug is not all
benign, and we may come to regret it if we fail to recognize and respond to
these trends.”
While Caulkins’s new study doesn’t attempt to address whether people are
actively substituting marijuana for alcohol, a study earlier this year out of
Canada, where marijuana is federally legal, found that legalization was
“associated with a decline in beer sales,” suggesting a substitution effect.
“Canada-wide beer sales fell by 96 hectoliters per 100,000 population
immediately after non-medical cannabis legalization and by 4 hectoliters per
100,000 population each month thereafter for an average monthly reduction of 136
hectoliters per 100,000 population post-legalization,” found researchers from
University of Manitoba, Memorial University of Newfoundland and University of
Toronto.
Sales data also show that Canada generated more excise tax revenue from
marijuana ($660 million) than wine ($205 million) and beer ($450 million)
combined in the 2022–23 fiscal year, as MJBiz reported.
At the state level in the U.S., cannabis sales have also been outpacing booze in
several legal jurisdictions.
For instance, Michigan marijuana sales outpaced purchases of beer, wine and
liquor combined during the most recent fiscal year, according to a report from
the legislature’s nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.
In Illinois, legal cannabis brought in $451.9 million last fiscal year—about
$135.6 million more than alcohol.
Colorado in 2022 generated more income from marijuana than alcohol or
cigarettes—and nearly as much as alcohol and tobacco combined. Similar
milestones have been seen in Arizona and Washington State.
A multinational investment bank said in a report late last year that marijuana
has become a “formidable competitor” to alcohol, projecting that nearly 20
million more people will regularly consume cannabis over the next five years as
booze loses a couple million drinkers. It also says marijuana sales are
estimated to reach $37 billion in 2027 in the U.S. as more state markets come
online.
A separate study published in November also found that marijuana legalization
may be linked to a “substitution effect,” with young adults in California
“significantly” reducing their use of alcohol and cigarettes after the cannabis
reform was enacted.
Data from a Gallup survey published last August also found that Americans
consider marijuana to be less harmful than alcohol, cigarettes, vapes and other
tobacco products.
A survey released by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and Morning
Consult last June also found that Americans consider marijuana to be
significantly less dangerous than cigarettes, alcohol and opioids—and they say
cannabis is less addictive than each of those substances, as well as technology.
In 2022, a survey showed that Americans believe that cannabis is less dangerous
than alcohol or tobacco.
> Cannabis Use Before Bedtime Does Not Cause Next-Day Impairment Of Cognitive
> Ability Or Driving Performance, Study Shows
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Don't Miss
Americans Want Marijuana Legalization To Prioritize Equity And Benefit Workers,
Poll From Advocacy Group Finds
Ben Adlin
Ben Adlin, a senior editor at Marijuana Moment, has been covering cannabis and
other drug policy issues professionally since 2011. He was previously a senior
news editor at Leafly, an associate editor at the Los Angeles Daily Journal and
a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. He lives in Washington State.
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