According to a survey conducted in 2023, 17 percent of American adults smoke marijuana. Additionally, around half of adults in the United States declared to have tried marijuana at least once. Over the last decades, the percentage of people who tried marijuana experienced an increase.

Current marijuana use among U.S. adults in 2022 was highest in Vermont, where around 34.37 percent of adults reported using marijuana within the past year. In recent years, a number of U.S. states, including Colorado and California, have legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational use. In 2022, around 132 million people in the United States reported that they had used marijuana at least once in their lifetime.

Consumer behavior Starting around 2013, the majority of U.S. adults now say they are in favor of legalizing marijuana in the United States. The share of adults who were in favor of legalization has continued to increase over the years. As of 2021, about 68 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 and older were in favor of legalization. Legal sales of marijuana reached 16.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, and are expected to increase to around 37 billion dollars by the year 2026.

COVID-19 impact on marijuana use The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns led to fears of an increase in substance abuse in many parts of the world. In March 2020, around 40 percent of millennials who used cannabis in the past year reported that they planned to increase their marijuana use during the COVID-19 pandemic. This rise in usage was reflected in sales early in the pandemic. In California for example, sales of marijuana on March 16, 2020 increased 159 percent compared to the same day in 2019.

Eighteen to twenty-nine-year-olds were the largest group of current marijuana smokers in the United States in 2019. Roughly a quarter of the age group were current smokers, with usage dipping among older age groups. Seniors were the least likely, with only three percent stating that they were current smokers.

Support for legalization

Although cannabis is still federally illegal, it has been legalized for recreational consumption in 10 states since 2012. Nationwide support for the federal legalization of cannabis has grown every year, with 18 to 34-year-olds being the biggest supporters. Seventy-eight-percent of Americans in that age group supported marijuana legalization in 2018, nearly double the level of support in 2003. Approval of legalization is more than 50 percent among all age groups.

Approval for medical use

Support for the medical usage of cannabis is even higher, and unlike recreational usage, approval levels are very close among all age groups. The average degree of support among all age groups was seventy-four percent. In contrast to the young age of most recreational smokers, in Oregon, one of the first state to legalize recreational cannabis, the highest share of people registered as medical marijuana patients were 55 to 69 years old.

In 2020, around 27 percent of African Americans aged 18 to 25 reported they had used marijuana in the past month. The statistic illustrates the percentage of African Americans in the U.S. who had used marijuana in the past month from 2017 to 2020, by age.

As of fall 2024, around ***percent of U.S. college students who had ever used cannabis had used it daily or almost daily in the past 3 months. This statistic presents the percentage of college students in the U.S. that had used marijuana during the past 3 months as of fall 2024, by frequency. Substance use among college students In 2024, alcohol was the most widely used substance among U.S. college students, followed by cannabis and tobacco products. At that time, around ** percent of college students reported they had drank alcohol at some point in their lifetime. Furthermore, nearly ********* of students reported using marijuana within the past thirty days. Unfortunately, substance use is often a maladaptive coping strategy used to deal with academic and social pressures, difficult emotions, and stress. Substance use and mental health Using substances can exacerbate existing mental health difficulties, as substance use and mental disorders often go-hand in hand. This is an issue of utmost importance due to the higher risk of suicide and self-harm behaviors among the college-aged population in the United States. Although over *********** of college students receiving mental health services also felt the need to reduce their drug and alcohol use in 2024, only *** percent reported actually receiving treatment for drug or alcohol use alongside their mental health treatment.

In 2022, around 133 million people in the United States had used marijuana in their lifetime, a substantial increase from 104 million in 2009. This statistic shows the number of people in the U.S. who have used marijuana in their lifetime from 2009 to 2023.

A 2021 survey of American high school students found that around 27.8 percent of students had used marijuana at at least one instance in their lifetime. The prevalence of marijuana use was higher among female students.

In 2020, around 23 percent of U.S. women aged 18 to 25 reported using marijuana in the past month. The statistic illustrates the percentage of U.S. women who had used marijuana in the past month from 2017 to 2020, by age.

In 2019, about 8.5 percent of Asian high school students in the United States stated that they smoked marijuana at least once in the past month. This is compared to 33.8 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native students who said the same.

A 2021 survey of American high school students found that around 27.8 percent of students had used marijuana at at least one instance in their lifetime. At least a quarter of of students across all racial and ethnic backgrounds had used marijuana at least once. This was lower for Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students, as well as Asian students.

This statistic shows the share of consumers in the United States that currently smoke marijuana as of July 2017, by household income. During the survey, 13 percent of respondents earning 30 thousand U.S. dollars per year or less said that they smoke marijuana.

Among Hispanics aged between 18 and 25, around 17 percent had used marijuana in the past month in 2020. The statistic illustrates the percentage of U.S. Hispanics who had used marijuana in the past month from 2017 to 2020, by age.

A July 2017 survey of U.S. adults found that approximately 13 percent of American men and seven percent of American women currently smoke marijuana.

Impact of Legalizing Cannabis in the U.S.

Since Washington and Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, several more states have followed suit. The tax revenue for medical and recreational cannabis in the United States amounted to 610 million U.S. dollars in 2017 and is expected to reach 1.8 billion U.S. dollars by 2020. The increase in marijuana production and retail also has the potential to create over 283 thousand jobs in the United States by 2020.

Marijuana Consumption Methods

Since legalization, there has been an explosion in the variety of marijuana consumption methods available. Though most marijuana consumers still seem to prefer flowers, or raw plant matter, 15.5 percent of the market is attributed to sales of edible cannabis products. In Colorado, volume sales of adult use marijuana-infused edibles were considerably higher during the summer months, at 918 thousand units in July 2017 alone.

In 2021/2022, Vermont had the lowest percentage of adults in the U.S. who perceived great risk from monthly marijuana use, at 11.81 percent. In contrast, Florida had the highest percentage of adults who considered monthly marijuana use to be very risky, with about 27 percent of adults stating this belief. This statistic depicts the percentage of U.S. adults aged 18 and older that perceived "great risk" from smoking marijuana once per month as of 2021 and 2022, by state.

Israel had the highest prevalence of cannabis use worldwide in 2020. Approximately ** percent of the adult population had consumed cannabis during that year. This is significantly more than in any other country. In the United States (U.S.), the prevalence of cannabis use is about ** percent. Cannabis around the world In Europe, Czechia had the highest prevalence of cannabis use among adults, with **** percent of their adult population consuming cannabis. However, while many Europeans consume cannabis, only a very small share of the legal cannabis sales worldwide are generated in Europe. North America has by far the largest share of legal cannabis sales, accounting for nearly the entire market. Nonetheless, unlike in Canada, where cannabis has been fully legalized, the drug remains illegal at the federal level in the U.S. and is only legalized in certain states. The legal status of cannabis in the United States One of the U.S. states that legalized cannabis is California. The state of California, which is the most populous state in the U.S., now collects almost *********** U.S. dollars from taxes generated by the sales of recreational marijuana. This is more than ***** as much as any other state collects. The support for legalizing marijuana among the adult U.S. population has changed significantly during the last half a century. While approximately ** percent supported legalization in 1969, it is now more than ********** of the population. Cannabis is particularly popular among college students in the United States. The percentage of U.S. college students that used cannabis regularly, that is monthly or more frequently, was almost ** percent in 2021.

In 2021, the Caribbean was the sub-region with the highest prevalence of cannabis use in Latin America. That year, approximately 5.73 percent of the population in the Caribbean had consumed cannabis at least once during 2021. South America followed, with around 3.58 percent of its population between 15 and 64 years using cannabis at least one time within that year, while 3.12 percent of the analyzed population in Central America had used cannabis in that period. It was estimated that the legal market of cannabis in Latin America could reach a value of nearly 45 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

According to a survey conducted in April 2019, 11 percent of American millennials used medical marijuana/cannabis regularly. The same was true for six percent of surveyed among the baby boomers generation.

In 2023, approximately 61.8 million people used marijuana in the past year. This statistic shows the number of people in the U.S. who have used marijuana in the past year from 2009 to 2023.

According to a 2022 survey conducted in the United States, adults who identified as bisexual, gay, or lesbian used marijuana more often than those who were heterosexual. In the month prior to the study, around 39 percent of bisexual adults in the U.S. reported using marijuana, compared to roughly 14 percent of straight respondents. This statistic illustrates the percentage of adults who used marijuana in the past month in the U.S. as of 2022, by sexual identity.

In 2018, around 29 percent of African American males aged 18 to 25 reported they had used marijuana in the past month. The statistic illustrates the percentage of African Americans aged 18 to 25 who had used marijuana in the past month from 2015 to 2018, by gender.