Politics
Teen Marijuana Use Hits All-Time Low As More States Legalize It For Adults, Federal Data Shows
The percentage of U.S. high school students who use marijuana is now at an all-time low—even as more states continue to legalize cannabis for adults—according to the latest results of a biennial survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The new federal data, released on Monday, shows that 12.9 percent of high school students currently consume cannabis, which is defined as having used it at least once in the past 30 days. That’s down from 23.1 percent in 2011—the year before the first U.S. states approved recreational marijuana legalization laws.
In other words, the number of high school students who use marijuana has decreased by almost half—44 percent—since states started enacting adult-use legalization.
The latest numbers also show a continued decrease from the prior version of the CDC marijuana use data in 2023, when 17 percent of high school students reported currently consuming cannabis.
The ongoing decline contradicts claims from opponents of legalizing cannabis who have often argued that the policy change would lead to skyrocketing youth use rates. In fact, the opposite has occurred, according to the new federal report.
“Sensational claims that adult-use legalization laws are linked with greater marijuana use by teens are simply not backed by reliable data,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “These government findings ought to reassure lawmakers that cannabis access can be legally regulated in a manner that is safe, effective and that does not inadvertently impact young people’s habits.”
Aside from the past-month measure, CDC’s 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey also shows that the number of high school students who have ever consumed cannabis has fallen from 39.9 percent in 2011 to just 25.5 percent last year.
The results are consistent with those from another federal study, the 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which was released in July. It showed that 8.7 percent of people between the ages of 12 and 17 used marijuana within the past year—down from 14.2 percent in 2011.
Prior research also suggests that marijuana use by young people has generally fallen in states that legalize it for adults.
A report from the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), for example, found that youth marijuana use declined in 19 out of 21 states that legalized adult-use marijuana—with teen cannabis consumption down an average of 35 percent in the earliest states to legalize.
The report cited data from a series of national and state-level youth surveys, including the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, which is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The latest version of MTF, released late last year, found that cannabis use among eighth, 10th and 12 graders “remained stable” even as mort states enacted legalization.
A separate federally funded study out of Canada found that that youth marijuana use rates declined after the country legalized cannabis.
A Canadian government report similarly found that daily or near-daily use rates by both adults and youth have held steady over the last six years after the country enacted legalization.
Another U.S. study reported a “significant decrease” in youth marijuana use from 2011 to 2021—a period in which more than a dozen states legalized marijuana for adults—detailing lower rates of both lifetime and past-month use by high-school students nationwide.
Separately, a research letter published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2024 said there’s no evidence that states’ adoption of laws to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults have led to an increase in youth use of cannabis.
Another JAMA-published study similarly found that neither legalization nor the opening of retail stores led to increases in youth cannabis use.
In 2023, meanwhile, a U.S. health official said that teen marijuana use has not increased “even as state legalization has proliferated across the country.”
