00:00In America, stoners are now outnumbering booze hounds.
00:03That's the conclusion of a study published Wednesday in the journal Addiction.
00:07Author Jonathan Calkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon's Hines College,
00:10looked at self-reported data from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health
00:14at several moments from 1979 to 2022.
00:18His findings indicated that in 2022, more Americans were using cannabis daily or near-daily
00:23than consuming alcohol at the same rate, 18 million to 15 million.
00:27That's a big change from the low point of cannabis use in 1992,
00:31when there were 10 times as many daily alcohol users.
00:34There are still a lot more people who drink than use cannabis, just not on a daily schedule.
00:38Calkins told the New York Times that he did consider this cause for concern,
00:42saying of cannabis,
00:43These findings reflect growing acceptance of cannabis in American culture,
00:53though federal policy has been slower to change.
00:55This month, President Biden's Justice Department proposed reclassifying marijuana
01:00from a Schedule 1 drug to a Schedule 3.
01:02Look, folks, no one should be in jail merely for using or possessing marijuana.
01:07Period.
01:08But even that change wouldn't decriminalize the drug.
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