Prevalence
- Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the U.S. Nearly 69 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once.
- About 10 million of Americans who had ever tried marijuana had used it within one month of the survey.
Youth
- Less than 50% of teenagers try marijuana one or more times before graduating from high school.
- About 21% of 10th graders surveyed are "current" marijuana users (had used within the past month.)
- Among high school seniors surveyed in 1997, current marijuana use (use within the past month) has increased by about 72% since 1991.
- The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) found adolescents who smoke pot 85 times more likely to use cocaine than their non–pot smoking peers.
- CASA also found that 60 percent of youngsters who use marijuana before they turn 15 later go on to use cocaine.
Damage to the Intellect
- In one survey, 59% of marijuana-using students reported forgetting what a conversation was about before the conversation was ended.
- 41% of students surveyed reported that if they read while stoned, they remembered less of what they had read.
- A 1995 study of college students discovered that for 24 hours after their last use of the drug, heavy marijuana users were unable to focus, sustain attention, and organize data.
Smoking and Driving
- Data have shown that people high on marijuana show the same lack of coordination on standard "drunk driver" tests as do people who have had too much to drink.
- A Memphis, TN study of 150 arrested reckless drivers found that 33% tested positive for marijuana and an additional 12% tested positive for both marijuana and alcohol.
Dangers to Health and Life
- The THC content of marijuana averaged less than 1 percent in 1974, and averaged 4 percent in 1994.
- Someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day.
- The daily use of 1 to 3 marijuana joints can produce the same lung damage and potential cancer risk as smoking five times as many cigarettes.
- An average marijuana cigarette contains nearly 50% more of the cancer-causing chemical benzopyrene than the average tobacco cigarette.
- Marijuana is the second most common drug, after alcohol, present in the blood of nonfatally and fatally injured persons.
- In 1995, 165,000 people entering drug treatment programs reported marijuana as their primary drug of abuse, showing they need help to stop using the drug.
