Marijuana use in 2022 exceeded alcohol use in the United States for the first time in more than 40 years, reports AP, citing the results of a study by Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.

The expert coordinated data from 27 national surveys of US residents between 1979 and 2022, in which more than 1.6 million people participated. The results found that in 2022, 17.7 million Americans used marijuana every day or almost every day, while 14.7 million people used alcohol with the same frequency. It is noted that such dynamics are observed for the first time in 40 years, since the beginning of respective data collection. The agency attributes this to the fact that marijuana has become available for use in most US states.

Most US states now allow medical or recreational marijuana, though it remains illegal at the federal level.