Pot smoking more popular than cigarettes at colleges as it hits 35-year high

The number of U.S. college students regularly smoking marijuana is greater than it has been in 35 years, according to a study released on Tuesday. Nearly 6% of college students reported using pot daily or near-daily in 2014, up from 3.5% in 2007, the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study found. It is still below the 7.2% recorded in 1980. However, it is higher than the 5% of students who identified themselves as heavy cigarette smokers, a steep decline from the 19% who said they smoked daily in 1999.

It’s clear that for the past seven or eight years there has been an increase in marijuana use among the nation’s college students

Researcher Lloyd Johnston

Loosened marijuana policies in states across the country have likely contributed to a rise in use by teens and young adults, who increasingly perceive the drug as harmless, the researchers said. In 2014, 35% of 19- to 22-year-old high school graduates said they thought regular marijuana use was dangerous compared with 55% in 2006, their study found. Cocaine may also be making a comeback on campuses, with 4.4% of students in 2014 reporting to have used it in the past 12 months compared with 2.7% in 2013.

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