More people in the United States are using Marijuana than ever before, a new study finds as the perception of smoking pot is changing among Americans. Over 13 percent of adults of 500,000 surveyed in 2014 said they had used cannabis in the previous year, up from close to 10 percent in 2002, the study published Wednesday in The Lancet Psychiatry stated.
The prevalence of the perceived risk of smoking pot once or twice a week decreased from 50.4 percent to 33.3 percent, the study found. The researchers estimated that the overall number of marijuana users increased from 22 million to 32 million during that period, with first-time marijuana users jumping from more than 800,000 to 1.4 million. The study was reportedly completed before Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska legalized recreational marijuana. [Read more at International Business Times]