Dan, a 76-year-old cannabis user from Charlotte, North Carolina, stated, “I use the edibles every day, and I use it to combat frustration over being invisible as an older American, and also it just makes me feel really good.”
Amy, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shared, “I’ve never been a big alcoholic drinker. However, to help me fall asleep at night, I do take Delta-8. which has a small amount of THC in it.”
With the policies surrounding cannabis shifting over recent years, Americans are now more likely to turn to daily cannabis use versus alcohol. Still, as cannabis use continues to climb, its future research and regulations could also continue to shift.
A Rising Number of Daily Use
A professor of operations research and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, Jonathan Caulkins, published a study in May that looked at cannabis use data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Analyzing data that spanned over 43 years, Caulkins’ study points to the rising number of daily cannabis use that is now larger than alcohol use.
“Back in 1992, there were about 10 times as many Americans reporting daily or near daily drinking as daily or near daily marijuana use. But since then, per capita rates of daily and near daily cannabis use have increased 15-fold and now actually exceed the rates for alcohol use,” stated Caulkins.
While there are still more Americans who drink in absolute numbers versus cannabis absolute numbers, new research shows that about 40% of marijuana users are using it at least nearly daily – which is an estimated 17.7 million daily users.
Caulkins stated that there could be a few reasons why this change is happening, specifically the more socially and culturally accepted cannabis use and the decrease in legal risks among states that have changed their laws regarding cannabis.
“But the other factor, very important that people talk less about, is an enormous decline in the price per milligram of THC,” said Caulkins.
Cause for Concern
As daily cannabis use continues to rise and makes sense, Caulkins argues it should also be a cause of concern, primarily because relatively little is known about the behavioral and health consequences of consuming more significant amounts and/or higher potency forms.
“There have been excellent studies done, randomized control trials in the laboratory exposing people to THC, but the doses involved in those studies are often on the order of 20 or 40 milligrams. And if you realize that the average daily user is consuming something like 1.6 grams of flower per day, that’s 20% potent,” said Caulkins, pointing to the need for further research in the future.
Ziva Cooper, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of the UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, discusses the concerns and need for research regarding consumption.
“Another important point here is that when we think about daily use, one critical variable to consider is not just how people are using it or why they’re using it, but also the frequency,” said Cooper. “How often are they using it every single day? In our own experience, there are people who are using cannabis daily, but they’re taking a puff or taking an edible once before sleep. But then there are also people who are using or smoking many joints per day, and so you would imagine that the effects are going to be quite different in the short term and long term.”
Future Regulations
Currently, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug in the US on a federal level, which poses issues when it comes to further research and the development of more beneficial regulations.
“President Biden ordered the rescheduling. And so it is in the process of doing so because it’s an enormously complex bureaucratic process. Nobody has ever really done this before. And there were a lot of measures for scheduling drugs and making them illegal and very few processes for doing the opposite,” explained Maia Szalavitz, a reporter covering science, public policy, and addiction treatment.”
Szalavitz further shared that it is not up to the health agencies to make decisions regarding whether or not cannabis should be legal – it is the law enforcement agency that does this. “And the DEA’s role is complicated here, because it obviously wants to protect its turf and have control over as many substances as possible.”
Cooper calls for further consumer education and research, which would benefit the future of cannabis regulations.
COOPER: Yeah, so it is an exciting turn of events. And in May 2024, the Department of Justice issued a draft ruling moving cannabis marijuana. So that’s cannabis with a certain amount of THC, from Schedule I to Schedule III. And it signified a couple of significant shifts in how the government is thinking about marijuana.
“As a Schedule I substance, there was no accepted therapeutic use for the drug. But with a movement to Schedule III, there is an acknowledgement of the therapeutic effects of marijuana, of THC, and marijuana. And so that was really important. Now, whether or not it eases research, I think it really remains to be seen. Because there are many other variables, not just the Schedule I classification, that limits the restrictions or the obstacles for research,” remarked Cooper.
With rising numbers of daily cannabis users and the already changing regulations of its use across the country, future research is a necessity for the future of cannabis regulations.
