NEW YORK, May 24. /TASS/. In 2022, marijuana use by US residents surpassed alcohol consumption for the first time in more than 40 years of data collection, the Associated Press (AP) reported, citing a study by Carnegie Mellon University.

Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, systematized data among US residents across 27 national surveys from 1979 to 2022, in which more than 1.6 million people participated. As a result, it was found that in 2022, 17.7 million Americans reported using marijuana daily or almost daily, compared to 14.7 million daily or frequent drinkers of alcohol. The agency cites the legalization of marijuana as the main driver of this trend.

Currently, at the federal level, US law does not allow the use of marijuana, but different states can independently regulate legislation in this field. Meanwhile, recreational use of marijuana has been legalized in several states, and more than 30 other states permit the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes.