Daily marijuana use outpaces daily drinking in the US, a new study says

By Carla K. Johnson | The Associated Press FILE – Marijuana plants are displayed at a shop in San Francisco, Monday, March 20, 2023. Daily and near-daily marijuana use is now more common than similar levels of high-frequency drinking in the U.S., according to an analysis of survey data over four decades, according to research published Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in the journal Addiction. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) (AP) – Millions of people in the U.S. report using marijuana daily or nearly every day, according to an analysis of national survey data, and those people now outnumber those who say they are daily or nearly-daily drinkers of alcohol. Alcohol is still more widely used, but 2022 was the first time this intensive level of marijuana use overtook daily and near-daily drinking, said the study’s author, Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. “A good 40% of current cannabis users are using it daily or near daily, a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical alcohol use,” Caulkins said. The research, based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, was published Wednesday in the journal Addiction. The survey is a highly...