Marijuana use among college students at highest level in 35 years
College kids are smoking more pot.
A new study from the University of Michigan, shows U.S. college students are using marijuana at the highest levels in 35 years. The numbers are the highest in the annual survey since 1983.
The results -- compiled in 2018 -- are based on the responses of about 1,400 adults, aged 19-to-22, including 900 full-time college students and about 500 part-time.
Though, the researchers only had comparable data on college students going back to 1980. So it’s hard to tell how common pot use was in the 1960s and 1970s.
Forty-three percent of students in the study said they’ve used some form of marijuana at least once in the past year. That’s up 38 percent from the previous year's Michigan survey.
Some 25 percent said they’ve used pot in the previous month, up from 21 percent. And about 6 percent said they used pot 20 or more times in the past month.
Compared to adults of the same age who weren't enrolled in college, that number was 11 percent.
The survey also found another 11 percent of college students who said they’ve "vaped" marijuana in the previous month. That’s more than double the figure in the 2017 survey.
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.
Research varies widely on that claim.
Marijuana use has been rising among college students for more than a decade. Schulenberg said it seems to be tied to views about risk: In the early 1990s, about three-quarters of young adults said pot was risky. In 2018, that number was down to 22 percent. Plus, in the last few years, marijuana has been legalized in 33 states for medicinal use and 11 states and Washington, D.C. for recreational use.
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A Pew Research Center poll found that 62 percent of Americans, supported legalizing marijuana.