In the US, regular cannabis use is on a path to replace regular alcohol use among every age group 19 to 65. Just in time for Dry January, a massive, authoritative December 23 study, published in the journal Addiction, found young adults (those under 30) have set aside regular alcohol use in favor of rolling one up instead. Gen X has matching cohorts of regular drinkers and smokers. And even retirees are relinquishing more and more scotch for the indica.
Studying substance use trends in the US
About 10 percent of the country drank near-daily in the mid-20th century. In the 1980s and 90s, drinkers far outnumbered weed smokers. But starting in 1996, voters approved over 40 medical cannabis states and 24 adult-use ones. Cannabis has become increasingly more accessible and popular.
To better understand these trends, Megan Patrick, a researcher at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, analyzed newly completed data from the Monitoring The Future Panel Study. Since 1976, the US has asked around 20,000 people ages 19-65 about their drug use.
The data set is superb for comparing drug trends for different age groups over time.
The survey adds a fresh cohort of 12th graders each year and surveys them every 2 years until age 30, and then every 5 years until age 65. In 2023, the first complete data set for the first cohort became available.
The data set is superb for comparing drug trends for different age groups over time. In total, the analysis done by Patrick included 389,649 responses from 1988 to 2023.
Young adults: Smokers now outnumber drinkers 3 to 1
After analyzing the data, Patrick’s findings paint a clear picture. Daily cannabis use is becoming more and more common, just as daily alcohol use is declining. The shift is more obvious in younger generations. About one in ten young adults regularly smoke weed. By contrast, just 1 in 30 regularly drink.
In Patrick’s analysis, someone was considered a daily or near-daily user of cannabis or alcohol if they used that substance more than 20 times in a month.
Back in the ‘80s, twice as many adults aged 19-30 drank near-daily than smoked. Those rates evened by 2010. Since 2011, cannabis has swiftly replaced daily alcohol use. By 2023, 10.4% of young adults were using daily or near-daily cannabis, compared to only 3.6% for alcohol.
Middle-aged adults: The cross-fade kids
Middle-aged adults followed similar trends, but they started with a much higher rate of daily or near-daily alcohol use compared to cannabis. In 2008, almost one in ten mid-adults drank daily or near daily. By contrast, maybe 1 in 40 mid-adults smoked daily.
Drinking also spiked among adults 35 to 50 during the pandemic. But over the last few years they have begun to drink less. Meanwhile, cannabis use climbs among Gen X. In 2023, daily or near-daily Gen X drinking or weed smoking rates converged for the first time—7.6% of 35-50-year-olds used alcohol regularly, and 7.5% used cannabis regularly.
Adults 55 to 65: Time is on weed’s side
The oldest group in this study consisted of adults aged 55-65. This group continues to have higher levels of daily or near-daily alcohol use (11.4%) compared to daily or near-daily cannabis use (5.2%).
But Patrick suggests that “if trends continue this may shift in the coming years.”
Younger adults already prefer cannabis to alcohol, and if trends hold, even seniors on the golf course will be hitting a vape instead of a brewski.
