A new study shows that Americans now use marijuana more often than they do cigarettes or alcohol.
2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released on Monday by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that 21,4 million Americans aged 12 and older admit to using or nearly using marijuana daily. This is defined as 20 days or more of consumption in a 30 day period.
Comparatively speaking, 17.2 millions Americans claim to consume alcohol almost daily, or every day.
In order to determine daily smoking, respondents were only asked if they smoked cigarettes every day for the previous 30 days. This survey found that 19.9 million people reported this.
Results show daily or nearly daily marijuana use is also higher than that of nicotine vaping (2 million), smokeless tobacco (4 million) and cigar smoking (17 million).
The fact that frequent cannabis consumption is now more popular than using alcohol or cigarettes comes as the latter two substances remain completely federally legal, and not subject to the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), while marijuana is still largely federally prohibited—although the Trump administration has reclassified medical cannabis as a Schedule III substance and is considering broader rescheduling.
The latest results of the annual NSDUH, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), also shows that teen marijuana use is continuing to decline, even as more states legalize cannabis for adults—undermining a key argument often voiced by opponents of the reform.
Another study, based on NSDUH information, found that Americans are now more likely to consume cannabis each day than they are to drink alcohol. The study showed that since 1992 the daily rate of cannabis use per person has risen by 15 times.
A separate study based on the federally-funded Monitoring the Future project showed that young adults were nearly three times as likely to consume marijuana on a regular or almost daily basis than they are alcohol.
In 2024, Gallup reported that the data from its surveying showed that American adults were now more likely than ever to smoke tobacco cigarettes or marijuana.