Puff, puff, surpass.
A new study has found that, for the first time in history, regular cannabis use among Americans is more commonplace than regular alcohol consumption.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon reviewed decades of data and found that more people are using marijuana than ever before. One-third of people who used cannabis in the past month reported using it daily or nearly every day. The portion of people who reported drinking daily or near-daily remained steady, at around 10%.
Study author Jonathan Caulkins told ScienceAlert, “It is striking that high-frequency cannabis use is now more commonly reported than is high-frequency drinking. The data come from survey self-reports, but the enormous changes in rates of self-reported cannabis use, particularly of daily or near-daily use, suggest that changes in actual use have been considerable.”
These self-report surveys began in 1979, evolving from pencil-and-paper interviews to online queries, and expanding over time to include Alaska and Hawaii and populations living in college dorms, on military bases and in homeless shelters. The amassed data reflects the drug use of some 1.6 million Americans.
Researchers note that while far more people still drink alcohol than use cannabis, high-frequency drinking has declined while rates of daily or near-daily cannabis use have increased. In 1992, the survey recorded 10 times more daily drinkers than cannabis users. In the most recent survey, daily tokers outnumbered boozers, at 17.7 million to 14.7 million.
En masse, substance use in the US is at an all-time high, pun intended.
The revelation that reefer consumption is on the rise comes on the heels — or stem, if you will — of the Justice Department’s historic decision to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug earlier this year.
The study notes that while the frequency of cannabis use mirrors these changes in drug policies, from the war on drugs in the 1980s to the more recent legalization of medical and recreational marijuana, these changes were not the primary factor influencing drug use.
“Whichever way causal arrows point, cannabis use now appears to be on a fundamentally different scale than it was before legalization,” said Caulkin.
Attitudes toward alcohol have also shifted in the decades since the survey began, possibly contributing to marijuana edging out booze as America’s favorite way to take the edge off. Recent research has revealed there is no safe amount of alcohol, and teetotaling can reduce the risk of cancer, cognitive decline and premature death.
However, sobriety might not be the answer to survival, as studies have also shown that “moderate” drinkers live longer than abstainers.
While proponents have long lauded the medicinal benefits of cannabis, a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that those who smoke weed daily are 25% more likely to have a heart attack and 42% more likely to suffer a stroke than people who don’t indulge at all.
Further studies have found that teens who use cannabis are more likely to develop asthma and 11 times more likely to develop a psychotic disorder than those who don’t.
