Daily marijuana use now more common than daily drinking: Analysis

The percentage of Americans who report using marijuana every day or almost every day is increasing, and that number now exceeds the percentage of people who drink alcohol every day or almost every day, according to a new analysis.

Approximately 17.7 million people reported using marijuana daily or nearly daily in 2022, and 14.7 million reported having a similar habit of alcohol, making it the first time in the last 30 years that marijuana was used daily. It has been reported that the amount of alcohol used exceeds that of alcohol. Go to analysis The paper, published Wednesday, examined data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

“A significant 40% of current cannabis users use cannabis daily or nearly daily, and this pattern is more associated with tobacco use than with typical alcohol use,” study authors said. said Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. Associated Press.

Analysts noted that there are “much more” people who drink alcohol than use marijuana, but heavy drinking is less common, with the average drinker in 2022 Marijuana users reported drinking alcohol 4 to 5 days per month, compared to an average of 15 to 16 days per month.

The analysis found that from 1992 to 2022, the rate of daily or near-daily use of marijuana increased 15 times.

The analysis said this trend correlates with changes in public policy, as more states have legalized medical or recreational marijuana in recent years.

Washington was one of the first states, along with Colorado, to legalize recreational use of marijuana more than a decade ago in 2012.

Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, but the Biden administration last week took a major step toward relisting the drug as a less restrictive Schedule III drug. This would remove marijuana from the same category as heroin and LSD.

Dr. David A. Gorelick, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told The Associated Press that there is other research suggesting that heavy marijuana users are more likely to become addicted. He was not involved in the study.

“High-frequency use also increases the risk of developing cannabis-related psychosis,” he told the newswire.