Marijuana use is set to surge past tobacco
Bottom Line: Last year I pontificated on the irony of traditional smoking rates dropping just as marijuana smoking was surging. The latest research on those who currently use marijuana and those who want to only furthers the conversation. Not everyone who uses tobacco smokes it and not everyone who uses marijuana smokes it – so all recreational cannabis/marijuana use isn’t necessary equal either but consider this from Morning Consult...
Users of cannabis or marijuana by generation
- Boomers: 8%
- Gen Xers: 14%
- Millennials: 22%
- Gen Z (those over the age of 18): 27%
Most recently smoking rates stood at 14% with overall tobacco use around 17%. It looks like overall cannabis and marijuana use is already around those levels and likely to surge past tobacco in the near future. It’s clear that the increased adaptation and availability of marijuana across the country is leading to dramatically increased levels of use. Advocates likely think this is great news, but will there be unintended consequences? It’s interesting that young adults are about twice as likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco. Maybe those rates will come down once the novelty of its availability wears off and real-world responsibilities become bigger concerns in their lives or maybe the rates continue to rise as product availability continues to rise. It’s unclear where this story goes from here but it’s already changing society. Many employers, for example, are currently ditching traditional drug testing.