A new study by the University of Michigan has found that more college students are using marijuana everyday, or almost everyday, compared to the last 35 years. And for the first time ever, more students are smoking pot than cigarettes, Tech Times reports.
MARIJUANA USE: 1 IN 17 SMOKE DAILY OR ALMOST DAILY
The research found that the percentage of students that had used marijuana at least 20 times in the past 30 days had rose to 5.9 percent, having been just 3.5 percent in 2007. That’s 1 in 17. Frequent use by a larger number of students was found in polls about pot at college in the 1980s. However, marijuana smoking being more common than cigarette smoking on American college campuses is unprecedented.
“It’s clear that for the past seven or eight years there has been an increase in marijuana use among the nation’s college students,” Lloyd Johnston, the report’s lead author, said. “And this largely parallels an increase we have been seeing among high school seniors.”
HIGH SCHOOL GRADS LESS WORRIED ABOUT POT
Higher rates of marijuana use were also found among high school graduates aged 19 to 22 years old. While 55 percent of the group that was polled in 2006 responded that marijuana use was dangerous, only 35 percent said the same last year. Infrequent marijuana smoking also increased, but not as sharply.
The research is part of the Monitoring the Future project supported by the National Institute of Health that studies substance abuse in American youth. The study has been conducted every year since 1980.
WHY GENERAL DRUG USE IS ON THE RISE
The study also found that the use of illegal drugs overall had increased. In 2006, 34 percent of college students reported using illicit drugs; in 2014, 41 percent have. However, as Fox News pointed out, the increase is mostly related to the trend of growing marijuana use, rather than other substances.
OTHER DRUGS AND THE SURVEY
Students were also surveyed about the use of other drugs, like cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines. While cocaine use may be increasing among college students, the abuse of ecstasy and amphetamines has not increased, and have either remained the same or decreased.
