Americans smoke more than drink

Published 25 May 2024 at 15.33

Foreign. For the first time in US history, more Americans smoke marijuana daily than drink alcohol daily, AP reports.

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Year In 2022, about 17.7 million Americans reported using marijuana daily or almost daily, compared to 14.7 million who drink alcohol equally often.

When daily marijuana use was at its lowest in 1992, fewer than a million Americans who reported using cannabis almost every day.

Alcohol use is still more widespread. But 2022 was the first year in which daily marijuana consumption surpassed daily alcohol consumption, according to Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.

– About 40 percent of those who use cannabis today do so daily or almost daily daily, which is similar to patterns of tobacco use rather than typical alcohol consumption, Caulkins told the AP.

The research, based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, is published in the journal Addiction.

Between 1992 and 2022, the percentage of Americans who reported daily or near-daily marijuana use increased fifteenfold. However, Caulkins notes in the study that the increase may be due in part to people being more likely to report their use of marijuana as public acceptance of the use of this substance increases.

Most states in the United States now allow medical or recreational use of marijuana, although it remains illegal at the federal level. In November, Florida voters will vote on a constitutional amendment to allow recreational cannabis, while the federal government is working to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.