Student marijuana use at highest level for 35 years, shows US study

Daily marijuana use among US college students is at its highest level since 1980, according a new study from the University of Michigan.

According to the latest edition of the university’s annual Monitoring the Future study, just under 6% of college students reported using marijuana daily or “nearly daily” in 2014, compared to just 3.5% in 2007. The highest level recorded, in 1980, was 7.2%.

The study also found that 39% of students reported having used any illicit drug in the previous 12 months, up from 34% in 2006—having peaked at 41% in 2013. That increase was accounted for largely by the rise in marijuana use.

The authors of the study attribute the increase in marijuana use to a shift in attitudes towards the drug, reporting that while 55% of high school graduates saw marijuana as dangerous in 2006, by 2014 only 35% did.

The study also found that students’ use of cocaine increased significantly since the previous year, with 4.4% of students reporting having used the drug in the last 12 months in the latest survey, compared to 2.7% in 2013.

But students’ use of alcohol is decreasing, with 63% of 2014 students reporting having had an alcoholic drink in the previous 30 days, compared to 67% in 2000 and 82% in 1981. The authors found a similar decrease in rates of heavy or “binge” drinking. However, they note that “there are still a sizable number of students who consume alcohol at particularly dangerous levels.”

The effect that alcohol and illicit drug use has on educational outcomes is the subject of an IZA World of Labor article by Daniel Rees. In his article, Rees writes that the effect of alcohol use on educational attainment “appears to be small or non-existent”; and, while illicit drug use is associated with poor outcomes, “no causal relationship has been demonstrated”. He concludes that: “Until more evidence can be brought to bear, attempts to restrict youth access to alcohol and other substances should be based on other concerns.”

Read more on this story at the Huffington Post.

Related articles:
Does substance use affect educational outcomes? by Daniel I. Rees
Alcoholism and mortality in Eastern Europe by Evgeny Yakovlev

Find more IZA World of Labor articles on education and human capital here