Newly published results of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey show a decline in the proportion of high-school students reporting past-month marijuana use over the past decade, as dozens of states moved to legalize cannabis.
As of 2023, 17 percent of high-school students reported using marijuana within the past month, according to the newly released 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. That’s down from 23 percent in 2013.
The federal survey is conducted every two years and focuses on substance use, sexual behavior, mental health, experiences of violence and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Though youth use rates have ticked up and down by a few percentage points from survey to survey within the 10-year timespan covered by the CDC report, the overall trend is that past-month use among high-school students has declined since 2013, the data show.
Notably, male students showed a more marked drop in marijuana use over the past decade, with rates falling from 25 percent in 2013 to 15 percent in 2023. Among female students over the same time period, rates decreased from 22 percent to 19 percent.
“There have been promising declines in high school students’ use of substances,” the report notes. “All substance
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