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Gallup: Number of Adult American Marijuana Users Nearly Doubles in Three Years (Or Does It?)

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #938)
Drug War Issues

A new Gallup poll reports that the number of people who use marijuana has nearly doubled since 2013. That year, 7% of adults said they were current marijuana users; this year, the number jumped to 13%.

Pot becomes a popular pasttime. (Darren Frisby Harris/Drug Policy Alliance)
It's not clear whether or to what degree the reported sharp increase is attributable to an actual increase in regular marijuana users or whether it's because people are more willing to admit their pot use in an era of growing acceptance of marijuana and spreading legalization of the herb.

Gallup reports consistent majority support nationwide for marijuana legalization since 2013, and it found that residents in the West, where four states have already legalized marijuana, were significantly more likely to report being regular users.

Most of the increase occurred between 2013 and 2015, when regular use hit 11% before climbing another two points between then and now.

Colorado and Washington legalized weed in 2012, joined by Alaska, Oregon, and the District of Columbia two years later. This year, legalization will be on the ballot in five states, including California, and medical marijuana will be up for a vote in at least three more.

Now, some 43% of Americans say they have ever tried marijuana, similar to last year's 44% and up slightly from 38% in 2013. In 1969, when Gallup first asked the question, only 4% said they had ever tried it.

According to the survey, the key determinants of marijuana use are age and religiosity. Among adults under 30, nearly one out five (19%) report current use, double the rate seen in any of the older groups. But only 2% of weekly church goers are users and only 7% of less frequent worshippers are. Among people who seldom or never go to church, 14% reported current use.

While 12% of men claimed current use, only 7% of women did. And, as noted above, 14% of Westerners were current users, compared with 9% of Easterners and Midwesterners and only 6% of Southerners.

Marijuana's decades-long move toward social acceptance continues.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

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