Marijuana use remains on the rise among US college students, but narcotic drug use declines
n 2015, 38 percent of college students said they had used marijuana in the prior 12 months, up from 30 percent in 2006. Daily or near-daily use of marijuana (having used 20 or more times in the prior 30 days) also has increased in recent years for college students, rising from 3.5 percent in 2007 to 5.9 percent in 2014 -- the highest level of daily use measured in the last 34 years. However, in 2015 their daily use fell back some to 4.6 percent, or one in every 22 college students. A decline in the degree of risk of harm associated with using marijuana may account for much of the increase in use. Since 2003, proportions of 19-to-22-year-olds seeing regular use of marijuana as dangerous to the user has fallen sharply -- from 58 percent in 2003 to 33 percent by 2015. "This increase in use and decrease in perceived risk of harm regarding marijuana use should be taken seriously by college administrators, parents and students themselves. We know through other research that fre...