More Americans are using marijuana, and fewer people think that regularly doing so is harmful.
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The results showed that marijuana use – which was defined as having used marijuana any time in the previous year – rose from 10.4 percent of adults in 2002 to 13.3 percent in 2014.
The authors recommended more overall public education to accompany the rise in marijuana use. “Perceived risk of marijuana use is associated with high frequency of use suggesting the potential value for modifying risk perceptions of marijuana use in adults through effective education and prevention messages”, said study author Dr. Wilson M. Compton of NIDA, in a release. “It’s well known in the USA that the laws related to marijuana have been changing; we’ve seen a number of states passing laws to allow marijuana for medical purposes”. However, numerous possible health effects of marijuana are unclear, and more research in this area is needed, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
These harms could include “difficulty with their work performance and with their ability to think clearly and function”, Compton said.
Compton and a team of researchers examined data from 596,500 adults over the age of 18 who had participated in an annual government survey that was nationally representative, between 2002 and 2014.
More use should mean more reports of marijuana-related disorders.
Daily users numbered more than 8 million in 2014 – more than twice as many as in 2002, the study authors determined.
Only one-third of American adults think there’s any “great risk” from smoking pot once or twice a week, according to a new Lancet Psychiatry report, compared with 50.4% of people who anxious about what weed was doing to them in 2002. Where just one-third of Americans once considered marijuana safe, now half do, according to the report. The prevalence of marijuana use disorders (abuse or dependence) among adults in the general population remained stable at about 1.5% between 2002 and 2014, and the prevalence of marijuana use disorders among users declined (14.8% to 11%). Over two decades, it dropped from 25 percent to about 22 percent.
The reasons for this are unclear, said Hall, co-author of an accompanying journal editorial. They may reflect changes in the characteristics of U.S. marijuana users, he said.
It’s too early to tell if these trends will continue, Hall said.
– No increase was seen in reported marijuana use disorders, like impaired memory, difficulty thinking and withdrawal symptoms like cravings, sleeplessness and depression.
The trend is accompanied by the growing number of states that are shifting their laws to legalize cannabis for medical – and recreational in some – uses.
“A pragmatic regulatory framework that allows for the legal, licensed, commercial production and retail sale of cannabis to adults, but restricts and discourages its use among young people, best reduces the risks associated with the plant’s use or abuse”, said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the marijuana advocacy group NORML.
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Marijuana users should also be made aware of the correlation between schizophrenia and cannabis use, added Jerry Otero, founder of Cre8tive YouTh*ink, a creative-arts, social-justice, youth-development organization, and former youth policy manager at Drug Policy Alliance. This study was jointly sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
