A new study on marijuana consumption in the journal "Addiction" reveals more people are using the drug on a daily basis compared with alcohol.
The main question is, why is this occurring? Lydia Burr with Hazelden Betty Ford explains.
"A lot of it can be traced back to the legalization of marijuana," says Burr. "There's also a lot of social and cultural information right now talking about how it's healthier than drinking alcohol."
So, is it actually safer to smoke weed than drink?
"I think some that we have to be very aware of is that we don't know," Burr explains. "So those social beliefs and cultural understanding that something is safer is not fact. It's not evident."
Burr also says despite some claims that marijuana is not very addictive, that isn't true.
"Marijuana has always been addictive," she says. "That's always been the case. The fact is, with the manufacturing of it, what people can now purchase is much more potent than I guess you could say the marijuana of the past."
Regardless, the study shows from 1992 to 2022 daily marijuana use increased fifteen-fold.
In 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people reported using marijuana daily or near-daily compared to 14.7 million daily or near-daily drinkers, according an analysis of national survey data. In 1992, when daily pot use hit a low point, less than 1 million people said they used marijuana nearly every day.
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 earlier in May. The survey is a highly regarded source of self-reported estimates of tobacco, alcohol and drug use in the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.