One in seven U.S. adults used marijuana in 2017

1. Adults aged 18 to 34 had the highest frequency of marijuana use compared to all other age groups.

2. A small percentage of respondents reported using multiple different forms of marijuana per year.

Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good)

Study Rundown: With marijuana legalization, it is now commercially available in increasingly novel forms, such as edibles and concentrates. Often, these products have tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content at levels that have unknown health effects. Currently, there is limited national data on the prevalence of use of other forms of marijuana. Therefore, the authors of this study aimed to accumulate national epidemiologic data in order to assess use of different forms of marijuana. One limitation of this study was that the platform consisted of an online survey. As such, there may have been an element of reporting bias in terms of those users that choose to participate in an online survey compared to those that do not. The authors emphasized the importance of annual epidemiologic data on use of different forms of marijuana to inform public policy.

Click to read the study in Annals of Internal Medicine

Relevant Reading: US Epidemiology of Cannabis Use and Associated Problems

In-Depth [survey]: The authors of this study conducted a national representative sample of 16 260 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older with respect to their marijuana use and different types of use. Participants completed an online survey that addressed marijuana use over the past year. The authors received a response rate of 55.3% (n = 9003), with a total of 14.6% of respondents reporting marijuana use in the past year. The most common type of marijuana use was smoking, followed by 6% of respondents that used edibles and 4.7% that reported vaping. Further, prevalence of smoking in states where marijuana was legal was 16% (CI, 13.9% to 18%), compared to 12.6% (CI, 11.2% to 14.1%) in states where medical use was illegal.

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