Fewer People Worrying About Risks Lead To More US Adults Using Marijuana

More American adults are using marijuana than ever before

A new research showed that as perceptions of marijuana change, more American grown-ups are utilizing the drug than ever before, and they are consuming it more frequently. So, the growth of marijuana consumption is influenced by the fact that people see the drug as less harmful than they did before.

Based on a research of over 500,000 US grown-ups between 2002 and 2014, the investigation determined that the use of marijuana increased from 10.4 percent of the population in 2002 to 13.3 percent in 2014. It could also be translated as a growth from 21.9 million to 31.9 million.

In 2014, it was estimated that the number of regular or near-daily users was around 8.4 million. In 2002, the number was around 3.9 million.

The number of individuals that declared they worry about the risks of smoking marijuana decreased from 50.4% to 33.3% over the equivalent period. However, the study did not find an increase in addiction or abuse of the drug. The use among teenagers or children was not analyzed in the research.

Dr. Wilson Compton, the study author and deputy director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, said that he is not surprised by the findings and believes that the growth was influenced by the social and legal acceptance of marijuana. He also highlighted that more than 25 stated legalized the medical use of the drug over the last 20 years.

An essential aspect is an education about the dangers of pot and making sure that people are not at risk of becoming addicted and other problems correlated with the drug. Other issues could include the inability to think clearly which can lead to complications with their work performance.

Higher marijuana use was linked to a drop in the percentage of individuals who correlate smoking pot with harm. According to the research, where just one-third of the American population once viewed marijuana as safe, now half of them do.

Notwithstanding higher usage, rates of marijuana addiction or abuse maintained steady in the overall population from 2002 to 2014 at around 1.5 percent. The research found that among marijuana users only, the rate of addiction or abuse dropped from 15 % to 11 %. The reason could be that older individuals are returning to occasional use, and there are fewer users between young adults who are at higher risk of developing problems with the use.

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Nancy Young

When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.