In a study of American college students, not only is cannabis use growing to popularity not seen in 35 years, but according to the report, “Regular use of pot beat out daily cigarette smoking for the first time.”
The study, “Monitoring the Future” was done by the University of Michigan and found that 5.9 percent of college students smoke cannabis on a daily, or near daily, basis. It’s a 25-28 percent increase from one year ago.
“Tobacco is a lot more harmful than marijuana, I believe,” said Matthew Kieltyka, a University of New Mexico senior.
John Steiner, the University’s program manager for Substance Abuse Prevention, said,
“I think the reason that we’re seeing that is that we’ve got more acceptance as a generally benign substance. The states are legalizing it, medical marijuana is now very prevalent, so students are getting the message that it’s not unsafe to use and so they be willing to violate our own drug and alcohol policies to use it. We don’t take the fact that marijuana is not considered a hard drug lightly at UNM. We do deal with it in our policies here on campus, which prohibit its use. We know that marijuana can be addictive for about nine percent of people who begin using it.”
Other findings from the University of Michigan report found that ecstasy and cocaine use are starting to increase among American college students, while alcohol use is declining.