Who Is Smoking Weed In America These Days? Twice As Many As A Decade Ago, Finds Latest Gallup Poll

For the past two years, more U.S. adults have reported smoking cannabis rather than cigarettes. In 2023, a record 17% of Americans said they smoked marijuana while 50% said they have "used" cannabis, according to Gallup's annual “Consumption Habits” latest survey of February 5.

These numbers outweigh the 12% of Americans who said they had smoked cigarettes “in the past week.”

“Americans' reported marijuana smoking has more than doubled since 2013, when Gallup first added the question in its annual Consumption Habits survey,” according to the poll. “That year, 7 percent said they did.”

Conversely, the cigarette smoking rate continued to fall during that same period, down from 19% of Americans in 2013.

Young Adults Ditching Tobacco For Cannabis

Meanwhile, young people are more than five times more likely to consume cannabis rather than tobacco, according to the new Gallup data.

About a quarter of young adults between 18 and 34 say they smoke cannabis (26%), but reported use falls to 18% among adults aged 35 to 54 and is even lower (11%) among adults aged 55 and older. Marijuana usage varies across other demographic groups.

Men (19%) are more likely than women (14%) to use marijuana. College graduates (9%) are about half as likely as those without a college degree (21%) to smoke marijuana. Democrats (22%) are more likely than Republicans (12%) to report smoking marijuana, with independents' rate (17%) falling between them.

Do Americans Support Marijuana Legalization? Resounding ‘Yes'

Gallup has recorded a significant increase in the U.S. public's support for the legalization of marijuana over the past six decades, rising from 12% in 1969 to 70% in 2023.

Seven in 10 Americans said they thought marijuana use should be legal, the highest level yet after holding steady at 68% for the past three years, according to a Gallup poll released in November 2023, just days before Ohio's historic vote to legalize recreational cannabis

Read also: Marijuana Legalization Support Hits Record 70% As Republicans Join The Majority, Shows Gallup Poll

What Percentage of Americans Have Tried Marijuana? Numbers Soar In Recent Years

A separate question finds that half of adults (50%) say they have tried marijuana.

Gallup's longer trend of looking at who has ever tried marijuana shows that experimentation increased sharply in the first decade this poll analyzes. Between 1969 and 1977, it jumped 20 percentage points, from 4% to 24%. It rose another nine points by 1985, to 33%, but thereafter stalled at under 40% until 2015, when it shot up to 44%. It remained at about that level through 2019 but then rose to 49% in 2021, roughly where it is today.

Photo: Elsa Olofsson On Unsplash