Daily marijuana use outpaces daily drinking in the US
May 23, 2024
Dr. Bridget Freisthler lent her expertise to The National Desk on a 2022 national study that 
reveals, for the first time, the number of Americans who use marijuana just about every day has surpassed the number who drink that often. This shift is some 40 years in the making as recreational pot use became more mainstream and legal in nearly half of U.S. states.
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.
