Younger adults are nearly three times more likely to use marijuana than alcohol on a daily or near-daily basis, according to a new government-backed study.
People in the oldest of three surveyed age groups, meanwhile, are more likely to drink alcohol frequently, while those between 35 and 50 appear to have roughly even daily or near-daily (DND) use rates for both substances.
Authored by University of Michigan research professor Megan E. Patrick, the new paper draws data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) Panel Study, an annual nationwide survey of about 20,000 people across three distinct age groups: ages 19 to 30, 35 to 50 and 55 to 65.
The analysis, published last week in the journal Data Insight, shows that among the youngest age group, frequent cannabis consumption was three times as common as alcohol use. Among 19 to 30 year olds, 10.4 percent reported DND use of marijuana compared to 3.6 percent who reported DND alcohol use.
On the opposite end of the age spectrum, frequent alcohol consumption was more than twice as prevalent as cannabis use among people 55 to 65 years of age. Of those respondents, 11.4 percent reported DND drinking, while 5.2 percent said they consumed cannabis daily or near-daily.
Among what the paper calls “early midlife adults”—those aged 35 to 50—use rates were almost equal: 7.8 percent reported DND alcohol use, while 7.5 percent reported DND cannabis consumption.
Overall, patterns indicate that daily or near-daily cannabis use has “increased over the past 5 and 10 years…among young adults and early midlife adults,” the study says, increasing by nearly 75 percent—an increase of 4.4 percentage points—from 2013 to 2023.
As for alcohol, DND use has decreased over the past five and 10 years among young adults, while early midlife adults have only reported a decrease more recently, during the past five years. DND drinking by young adults fell about 35 percent (1.9 percentage points) over the past decade, “from 5.5% in 2013 to 4.8% in 2018 and to 3.6% in 2023,” the report says. “Among early midlife adults, there was a significant decrease by approximately 20% (1.6 percentage points) over the […]
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A baggie containing so-called magic mushrooms The U.S. Attorney’s Office,
