Rates of marijuana use among Colorado teens continued to decline in 2025—and youth are also reporting significantly lower levels of access to cannabis—according to a biennial survey from state health officials.
The findings from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) seem to support a longstanding argument from reform advocates who’ve maintained that regulating marijuana sales and imposing age-related restrictions is a more effective strategy to prevent youth use compared to imposing criminal prohibition on adults.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), which oversees the survey, found that 9.7 percent of high school students in the state reported past-30 day marijuana use—a meaningful reduction compared to the 12.8 percent usage rate youth reported in 2023.
Notably, current teen marijuana use rates have declined 56 percent decrease since 2011, which was the year before Colorado voters approved recreational legalization.
“Trend analysis shows significant decreases in marijuana use over the past 10 years,” CDPHE said.
Also, Colorado high school students are notably less likely to have used cannabis in the past 30 days than the national average of 17 percent, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The Colorado survey
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