Nearly 4 In 10 Californians Are Current Marijuana Users—And Most Report Health Benefits, Study Shows

More than a third of California adults are current cannabis consumers, a new survey finds, and the vast majority of them say marijuana provides health benefits—regardless of whether or not they are specifically using it for medical purposes.

Those are among the results of a sweeping new survey from a team at University of California (UC) San Diego that polled more than 15,000 people in the state on their marijuana use from December 2022 to February 2023. Findings were published last month in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

Lead author Linda Hill, a UC San Diego medical professor, said the study “provides the first comprehensive understanding of cannabis use patterns in California since the implementation of Proposition 64″—the 2016 voter-approved law that legalized marijuana for adults in the state.

Of the roughly 15,000 initial respondents to the survey, 37 percent said they were current cannabis users (meaning use within the past three months), while 30 percent identified as former users and another 33 percent said they were nonusers.

From there, researchers had roughly 5,000 participants take a more in-depth questionnaire, partnering with the market research team Quester to ensure the sample was a representative subset of Californians, including Spanish speakers.

“Positive impacts were reported in mental (82%), emotional (81%), and physical (62%) health.”

“These methods allowed us to collect more in-depth data than is possible in a typical survey-based study,” co-author Renee Dell’Acqua, the research program manager for UC San Diego’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health Transportation Research and Education for Driving Safety (TREDS) center, said in a press release. “The result is an incredibly rich picture of how adults are using cannabis in California that can be used to inform future policy and public health initiatives.”

Notably, regardless of whether they identified as recreational consumers or medical marijuana patients, majorities reported that cannabis benefitted their emotional (82 percent), mental (81 percent) and physical (62 percent) health.

“Other perceived benefits included clear focused thinking (63%), improved relationships (57%), and work performance (42%),” the study says. “The most reported negative effects included brain fog (21%) and lack of motivation (21%).”

Seventy-eight percent of participants said they were comfortable discussing marijuana use with their doctor, though a smaller portion—66 percent—reported that their physicians are aware of their cannabis use. And only 15 percent said they turn to healthcare providers for information and guidance on marijuana.

Instead, most respondents said they source information from the internet (51 percent) and friends or family (50 percent).

As for where Californians get cannabis itself, 77 percent reported buying from retail stores, while 35 percent reported using delivery services. Most respondents said they believe those stores and delivery services are licensed, at 94 percent and 91 percent, respectively.

“In contrast to public reporting regarding the strong presence of the illicit marketplace,” authors noted, “over 90% of users purchasing from dispensaries or delivery services perceive their service as licensed.”

“Most users obtained cannabis from licensed dispensaries…and reported mental, emotional, and physical health benefits.”

Thirty-two percent of respondents also reported getting marijuana from friends, and 12 percent said they grow their own. For dosing information, “48% of current users relied on experience, 29% packaging details, 24% budtender advice, 20% internet, 20% friends or family, 15% doctors, and 15% did not seek dosing information,” the report says.

Most consumers also reported using multiple product types, with only 9 percent saying that they stick to a single product—typically flower (4.6 percent) and edibles (2.8 percent).

“Commonly used products include flower (56%), edibles (50%), and vaping (36%),” the study says, adding that the rates “somewhat differ from a 2018 California Department of Public Health study, which reported flower inhalation (58.2%), ingestion (15.9%), and vaping (17.5%).”

Most California cannabis users also partake regularly, with 38 percent reporting marijuana use multiple times a day and 33 percent saying they consume four times a week or more. Only 30 percent said they use cannabis three times a week or less.

While cannabis users in general “represent a diverse demographic group,” current users were more likely to be younger, male and not Asian or Pacific Islander, authors wrote. “Compared with former users, current users were more likely to be married and were older when they began using cannabis.”

Very frequent users were also more likely to be male, be less educated and have lower incomes.

Users typically consumed cannabis at home (93 percent) and for entertainment (75 percent). Other locations included someone else’s home (31 percent), parties (29 percent), outdoors (24 percent) or in their car (22 percent). And beyond entertainment, use was often paired with creative activities (45 percent).

About a third of users (36 percent) reported concurrent use of alcohol, while about a quarter (24 percent) combined marijuana and cigarettes. Nine percent said they used marijuana concurrently with other drugs.

The new survey, known as Impact 64, was supported in part by a grant from the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC).

Meanwhile in California, state officials are inviting research proposals for a second round of grants under a program meant to better educate the public on the state’s marijuana law and help policymakers make informed decisions on the issue.

For the new $30 million round of the grant program, which is funded by marijuana tax revenue, DCC said it is prioritizing proposals in research areas including educational methods of improving public health and safety, crop yields, state and local marijuana policies, consumer preferences, environmental sustainability and other topics.

“At a time when the federal government is pulling back funding for cannabis-related research, California is stepping up,” DCC Director Nicole Elliott said in a press release last month.

Some operators in the state, however, say a recent tax hike “could kill this industry.”

Separately, the state’s Senate recently advanced a bill that includes provisions to ratify a labor agreement ending random drug tests for marijuana among correctional officers in the state’s prison system.

As part of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would be ratified by the measure, which cleared the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee in a unanimous 17-0 vote last Monday, most correctional officers would no longer be randomly tested for cannabis or penalized over off-duty use.

Meanwhile on the national level, a federally funded report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) last month found that use of marijuana by U.S. adults 65 and older has increased considerably in recent years amid broader legal access for medical and recreational use.

Cannabis consumption had already been on the rise over the past couple of decades, that research said, with reported past-year consumption rising from 1.0 percent in 2005 to 4.2 percent in 2018. The latest findings, which draw on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, indicate that past-month use climbed to 4.8 percent in 2021 and to 7.0 percent in 2023.

The growth in prevalence over the past few years was seen among nearly all demographic subsets, but it was especially strong among people who listed their race as “other,” women, white people, people with college or post-college degrees, those with higher-income, married people and those living in states with legal medical marijuana, the report said.

Data also showed that people with multiple chronic diseases also reported a recent increase in prevalence of use.

Some trends revealed what authors called “shifts in cannabis use by older adults.”

“Adults with the highest incomes initially had the lowest prevalence of cannabis use vs other income levels,” they said, for example, “but by 2023, they had the highest prevalence, which may indicate better access to medical cannabis given its costs.”

The rise in cannabis use among adults 65 and older in legal jurisdictions “highlights the importance of structural educational support for patients and clinicians in those states,” the report noted, pointing to potential complications in treating chronic disease.

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.