Marijuana Use Among College Students Hits Highest Level In 35 Years

An annual study by the University of Michigan revealed that US college students are using marijuana at the highest rate since 1983.

The results of the survey, which were compiled in 2018, were based on responses from 1,400 adults aged 19 to 22. The research pool included 900 full-time college students, and 500 part-time students.

The researchers who carried out the study compared the data from 2018 to annual data stretching back to 1980, when UMich started monitoring marijuana use among different demographic groups, according to Fox Business.

Here’s more on the results courtesy of the Associated Press:

About 43% of full-time college students said they used some form of pot at least once in the past year, up from 38%, a University of Michigan survey found. About 25% said they did so in the previous month, up from 21%.

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About 6 percent of college students said they used marijuana 20 or more times in the past month. For adults the same age who weren’t enrolled in college, the figure was 11 percent.

Unfortunately, there’s no data showing how high (no pun intended) usage rates were in the 1960s and 1970s, a time when pot use on college campuses was said to have exploded as the “hippie movement” peaked.

But compared to other demographic groups, marijuana usage rates are the highest among college-age adults, while usage rates among high school students have been flat for the past few years, as have usage rates for other drugs.

Marijuana use among college-age adults has been climbing for more than a decade, and it’s widely believed that this trend is linked to views about its safety. In the early 1990s, three-quarters of college-age adults believed using pot was a serious risk to one’s health. But as of last year, this figure had fallen to just 22%.

One of the researchers who led the survey said public health experts are concerned that pot use is linked to poor academic performance and deteriorating mental health.

The uptick in pot use has John Schulenberg, one of the Michigan researchers, concerned: “It’s the frequent use we’re most worried about,” he said, adding that he believes it could be linked to poor academic performance and have negative impacts on mental health.

Meanwhile, the survey found that about 11% of college students vaped marijuana in the previous month as of 2018, up by more than 100% from the prior year.

All of the Democrats vying for the 2020 nomination support reducing penalties for marijuana use, and many support legalization at the federal level. So far, 25 states have either decriminalized or fully legalized marijuana for personal use or personal cultivation.