The latest Gallup poll has found that nearly 25 percent of young Americans (aged 18 to 29) are admitted cannabis users — this is about double the rate of the rest of the population, of which 13 percent say they “regularly” or “occasionally” use and/or smoke cannabis.
Cannabis usage rates could be on the rise, because — according to the pollsters — this data “is on par” with the average 22 percent of young adults who said across three surveys from 2015 to 2017 that they smoked cannabis.
The other age brackets are consistently less likely to be cannabis users as their ages increase:
- 13 percent of adults aged 30-49
- 11 percent of adults aged 50-64
- Just 6 percent of adults who are 65 or older
Cannabis use is not only most prevalent among 18- to 29-year-olds but it is also much more common in the West, where all the coastal states in the continental U.S., including Alaska, have legalized adult-use cannabis.
The poll data was collected during telephone calls placed July 1 to July 11, 2018, to a random sample of 1,033 adults, aged 18 and older.
Cannabis is legal for adult use in nine states plus Washington D.C. and more than 30 states have established some sort of medical cannabis reforms.