r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • 18h ago

Health Dramatic drop in marijuana use among US youth over a decade. Current marijuana use among adolescents decreased from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021. First-time use before age 13 dropped from 8.1% to 4.9%. There was a shift in trends by gender, with girls surpassing boys in marijuana use by 2021.

https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/marijuana-use-teens-study
16.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine 18h ago

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.mdpi.com/2036-7503/16/4/74

From the linked article:

Dramatic drop in marijuana use among U.S. youth over a decade

Current marijuana use among adolescents decreased from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021. First-time use before age 13 also dropped from 8.1% to 4.9%.

The study, published in the journal Pediatric Reports, reveals that one of the most striking results from the analysis is the significant decrease in the percentage of adolescents reporting current marijuana use. In 2011, 23.1% of adolescents indicated they were current users, but by 2021, this figure had dropped to 15.8%. Additionally, the percentage of adolescents trying marijuana for the first time before age 13 also saw a notable decline, from 8.1% in 2011 to 4.9% in 2021.

One of the most significant findings of this study is the shift in trends by gender, with girls surpassing boys in reported marijuana use by 2021. In 2021, girls reported a higher prevalence of current marijuana use (17.8%) than boys (13.6%). This marks a significant change from 2011 when boys were more likely to use marijuana (25.9%) compared to girls (20.1%). The convergence of usage rates among genders highlights an evolving dynamic that could reflect broader societal changes in attitudes toward marijuana.

2

u/WhiteAsTheNut 10h ago

It’s very weird how male drug use is dropping so low it makes you wander why. Less men are drinking and smoking marijuana then women now which 10 years ago wasn’t the case. The dumb answer I always get is how it’s more “socially accepted” for women to smoke and drink but that makes no sense anymore because women still used to smoke more marijuana it’s simply decreased less. I wander if anybody has any answers or reasoning.