Current marijuana use among U.S. adults in 2023 was highest in Vermont, where around 26.67 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 2023, around 133 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.

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.

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 2024, approximately 64.1 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 2024.

Marijuana is by far the most used illicit drug in the United States, with over 64 million people using this drug in 2024. The second most used drug at that time was cocaine, followed by methamphetamine and ecstasy. The United States has had a complicated history with drugs, from fighting a “War on Drugs” starting in the 1970s, to seeing the legalisation of marijuana in many states, and experiencing an ongoing nationwide opioid overdose epidemic. Recreational marijuana Although marijuana is still illegal under federal law, 21 states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. This legalization has opened a new and thriving market in these states. It is estimated that sales of legal cannabis will reach around 25 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2025. Although support for the legalization of marijuana has not always been strong, now around 68 percent of U.S. adults believe it should be made legal. The opioid epidemic The opioid epidemic describes a rise in overdose deaths in the U.S. due to prescription opioids, heroin, and illegally manufactured synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. The epidemic stems from misleading information from pharmaceutical companies concerning the dangers of opioids such as oxycontin, overprescribing of opioids from physicians, and an influx of easily accessible heroin and highly potent synthetic opioids. In 2022, there were around 81,806 deaths from opioid overdose in the United States.

In 2020, around 37 percent of lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults in the United States aged 18 to 25 years had used marijuana in the past month. This statistic shows the percentage of U.S. lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults who had used marijuana in the past month, from 2017-2020, by age group.

Adult use sales of cannabis in Michigan totaled over ************* U.S. dollars in 2023. This represented an increase of *** percent over the previous year.

In 2018, around ** 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.

The number of medical cannabis patients in the U.S. according to estimates mostly from year-end 2024 was highest in the State of Florida. Florida had around *** thousand medical cannabis patients at that time. In that same year, Oklahoma had the highest percentage of medical cannabis patients. Medical marijuana There may be many positive effects of medical cannabis, including to patient health and to the economy. However, medical cannabis market forecasts in the U.S. for the coming years have been revised down. From a medical point of view, the most commonly cited benefits of the drug were pain reduction and sleep. There are currently numerous research projects underway in the U.S. to determine the medical benefits and therapeutic uses of marijuana products, as well as the potential impact of marijuana legalization on the U.S. economy. Public opinionPublic opinion on the effects of marijuana and its ability to be used in patient care vary. However, it is clear that many U.S. adults support the legalization of marijuana in some form. A recent study indicated that the support for marijuana legalization has been increasing in recent history. Another study has shown that an overwhelming majority of participants felt that cannabis has valid medical uses. Despite current efforts at legalization and research underway, marijuana with over *** percent of THC – for any use – is considered illegal under federal U.S. law.

In 2021/2022, the states with the highest share of people who had used cocaine in the past year were Colorado, Vermont, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In Colorado, around 3.06 percent of the population were estimated to have used cocaine in the past year at that time, compared to the U.S. average of 1.95 percent. The states with the lowest past-year cocaine consumption rates were New Hampshire and Wyoming. Cocaine use in the United States As of 2022, cocaine was the second most used illicit drug in the United States, behind marijuana. At that time around 42.2 million people in the U.S. had used cocaine at least once in their lifetime. In comparison, around 29.5 million people reported using LSD in their lifetime and 22.1 million had used ecstasy. In 2022, almost 5.2 million people were estimated to have used cocaine in the past year. How many people in the U.S. die from cocaine every year? The number of drug poisoning deaths involving cocaine has increased significantly over the past couple decades. In 2021, there were around 24,486 overdose deaths involving cocaine, compared to just 3,800 in the year 1999. However, it is important to note that many overdose deaths involving cocaine also involve other drugs, namely opioids. The increase in overdose deaths involving cocaine is directly related to the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States. Rates of overdose death involving cocaine are twice as high for men than women, but death rates for both men and women have increased in recent years.

Among adult Americans, 68 percent stated to be in favor of the legalization of marijuana in the United States. The share of people who believed that marijuana should be legalized increased considerably over the years. In 2003, only 34 percent of Americans were in favor, whereas in 2021, only 32 percent are against it.

Marijuana was the most used illicit drug among U.S. LGB adults in the past year, as reported in 2022. This statistic shows the percentage of U.S. lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults who reported illicit drug use in the past year as of 2022, by drug type.

Israel had the highest prevalence of cannabis use worldwide in 2020. Approximately 27 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 17 percent. Cannabis around the world In Europe, Czechia had the highest prevalence of cannabis use among adults, with 11.1 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 1.3 billion U.S. dollars from taxes generated by the sales of recreational marijuana. This is more than twice 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 12 percent supported legalization in 1969, it is now more than two-thirds 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 40 percent in 2021.

In 2010, around * percent of American adults based in the state of D.C. reported using cannabis in the past month. In 2017, the percentage increased to ** percent. In the state of Oregon, the percentage of adult users was * percent in 2010 and increased to ** percent by 2017.

According to the data, support for marijuana legalization has increased from 12 percent of respondents in 1969 to a record-high of 70 percent of respondents in 2023. This statistic depicts the percentage of U.S. adults that supported marijuana legalization from 1969 to 2023.

In 2017, *** percent of adults based in the state of Texas reported to have used cannabis in the previous month, which was the lowest reported cannabis use by adults in the United States. The states of Utah and Alabama both had *** percent of their population use cannabis in the previous month.

In the United States, sales of legal recreational cannabis are expected to reach nearly ** billion U.S. dollars by 2030. Legal marijuana sales are forecast to increase steadily with each consecutive year. Sales per state The number of cannabis consumers is likewise expected to grow in the United States: by 2025, the country is projected to have close to ** million consumers. In 2018, the state of California was by far the leading American state in terms of legal, as well as illicit cannabis sales. The market for recreational marijuana in California amounted to some *** billion U.S. dollars in 2018. This was more than double the market size of New York. By 2024, the recreational cannabis market in California is forecast to reach *** billion dollars. Opinions on legalization In 2020, more than ********** of adult Americans believed cannabis should be made legal in the United States. Over the past decades, public support for the legalization of the soft drug has increased significantly. In 2003, only about ******* of Americans were in favor of legalization, while more than ** percent of the population was against it.

As of 2023, almost ** percent of respondents in the United States with a diagnosed mental illness reported using an illicit drug in the past year. This statistic depicts the percentage of adults in the United States who used select substances in the past year as of 2023, sorted by any mental illness.

In 2024, it was estimated that over **** million people in the United States had used cocaine at some point in their life. The number of people in the United States who stated they had used cocaine in the past month has fluctuated over the past decade, but over *** million people reported they had used cocaine in the past month as of 2023. Cocaine use among teens The percentage of U.S. students in grades *, **, and ** that had used cocaine in their lifetime has gradually decreased since 1999. At that time, around *** percent of students stated they had used cocaine in their lifetime, while in 2021 just *** percent of students said so. Perhaps unsurprisingly, perceived availability of cocaine among **** graders has also decreased over the past couple decades, with about ** percent of **** graders stating cocaine was “fairly easy” or “very easy” to get in 2021, compared to almost ** percent who reported it was easy to get in 1990. The most common illicit drugs U.S. students in grades *, **, and ** reported having used in their lifetime were marijuana, inhalants, and hallucinogens such as LSD and mushrooms. Deaths from cocaine In 2020, there were ****** drug poisoning deaths involving cocaine in the United States. The number of overdose deaths involving cocaine has increased significantly over the past few years as part of the ongoing opioid epidemic. Although, it is possible to die of an overdose just from using cocaine, many overdose deaths in the U.S. that involved cocaine also involved the use of opioids. The rate of overdose deaths involving cocaine is almost ***** times higher among men than women, but both have seen increases in the rate of overdose death in recent years. Considering race and ethnicity, the rate of overdose deaths involving cocaine is by far highest among black, non-Hispanics and lowest among Asian/Pacific Islander, non-Hispanics.

Sales of cannabis in Oregon reach a record of *** million U.S. dollars in 2022. This was a decrease of ** percent compared to the previous year.