By Noelle Skodzinski
This week, Gallup released results of new poll that found that 45 percent of Americans say they have tried marijuana. According to the report, "This is the highest percentage Gallup has found since it began asking the question in 1969," when just 4 percent of Americans reported having tried marijuana.
The poll results, which are based on a study conducted in July among more than 1,000 Americans living in all 50 states and D.C., also show that 11 percent of Americans currently smoke* marijuana.
Like the number of Americans who say they have tried marijuana, the number of those who say they currently smoke it has increased each year, including a 3 percent increase (up from 7 percent) over 2013. "The changes over time may reflect either an increase in the percentage who have tried the drug, or an increased willingness to admit to having done so in the past. The latter possibility certainly seems plausible," according to the report, considering the increasing support for marijuana legalization.
The report does not mention any data on the percentage of Americans who consume marijuana for medical reasons vs. recreationally.
The poll found that 19 percent of Americans say they smoke cigarettes.
Age and sex are factors in marijuana use, according to the poll findings. Men are more likely to say they have tried marijuana (47 percent) than women (35 percent), as well as more likely (13 percent) to say they currently smoke it than women (6 percent).
Adults between the ages of 30 and 64 are most likely to say they have tried marijuana: 50 percent of adults ages 30 to 49 and 49 percent of adults ages 50 to 64 say they have tried marijuana. By comparison, 37 percent of those ages 18 to 29 say they have tried it. The lowest percentage (22 percent) was found among those 65 and older.
Americans younger than age 30 are most likely to say they currently smoke marijuana (18%), and that percentage declines with age. Ten percent of those ages 30 to 49 say they currently smoke, followed by those ages 50 to 64 (6 percent), then those ages 65 and older (3 percent).
Marijuana experimentation or past use did not vary greatly among income levels, with between 42 percent and 44 percent of those in all income levels surveyed saying they have tried marijuana.
Those with an annual income less than $30,000, however, were more likely to say they currently smoke marijuana (14 percent) than those with an annual income of $30,000-$75,000 (9 percent) and those with an annual income of $75,000 or more (7 percent).
Marijuana experimentation or consumption does not seem to vary greatly by race, with 42 percent of whites and 39 percent of non-whites saying they have tried marijuana. Eight percent of whites and 11 percent of non-whites say they currently smoke it.
Nor did usage vary greatly by education level: Those with a high-school education or less were only slightly more likely (41 percent) to say they have tried marijuana than those with some college education (41 percent), college graduates (39 percent) or postgraduates (40 percent).
Those with some college education (12 percent) were, however, slightly more likely to say they currently smoke marijuana than those with a college degree (10 percent), those with a high-school education or less (9 percent) or those with post-graduate education (4 percent).
Whether or not someone said they have tried marijuana varied slightly with their political affiliation, with Democrats being the most likely (48 percent) to say they have tried it, as compared to 44 percent of Independents and 31 percent of Republicans.
Democrats (12 percent) and Independents (11 percent) were more likely to say they currently smoke marijuana than Republicans (1 percent).
*The question posed to poll participants was, "Keeping in mind that all of your answers in this survey are confidential, do you, yourself, smoke marijuana?" CBT wonders why the poll asked participants only about "smoking" marijuana and not other methods of current consumption. Some reports estimate that edibles constitute 45 percent of the legal cannabis market, and other methods of consumption also are popular, so if the questions had asked about marijuana "use" or "consumption" vs. "smoking," the results could certainly vary. It also is not clear how someone who consumes marijuana in a non-smokable form would answer the question, nor is it clear what percentage of those who consume edibles also smoke marijuana.
Feature photo: © Lostarts | Dreamstime.com
