UC San Diego Study: 8% of U.S. Parents Used Cannabis on Most Days in 2024

A new study from the University of California, San Diego puts hard numbers on something many households already know: more parents are using marijuana, and many are using it constantly.

The researchers, whose work appeared in the journal Addictive Behaviors, found cannabis use rose substantially among parents between 2012 and 2024. They estimate that at least 5.9 million U.S. children were living with a parent who used marijuana on most days in 2024.

The numbers

By 2024, 8% of parents used cannabis on most days. About 5.2% used it daily. And 6.7% met the criteria for cannabis use disorder.

Daily cannabis use among parents was about four times as common as daily alcohol use, the study found.

The increases showed up across nearly every demographic group. Some of the biggest jumps came among younger parents, unmarried parents, lower-income households and parents without a four-year college degree.

The data comes from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which covered nearly 482,000 Americans age 12 and older. That is the full survey sample, not just parents.

What a physician says about the risks

Dr. Jarid Pachter, who practices family medicine and addiction medicine at Stony Brook Medicine in New York, was not involved in the research. He told Fox News Digital that marijuana has become so socially acceptable that people are overlooking the risks.

"Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's harmless," Pachter said.

His first concern is impairment. THC, the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, is known to affect attention, memory, coordination and reaction time. "When you have young children, you need to be alert and able to respond to their needs," he said.

His second concern is the example at home. Pachter pointed to studies showing that children whose parents use marijuana are more likely to use it themselves as they get older.

He was careful about what that proves. "That doesn't necessarily mean the parent's marijuana use is causing the child to use, but there's clearly an association," he said.

Edibles and small children

Pachter also flagged accidental ingestion, especially with edibles. Gummies and chocolates can look like ordinary candy to a toddler, and he said emergency room visits involving children and marijuana have increased significantly.

Doctors warn that a child who swallows a large enough dose can suffer severe sedation, confusion, trouble walking or breathing problems, and may need hospital care.

That is a storage problem, and it is the parent's job to solve it. Locked containers and out-of-reach shelves are cheap. An ER visit is not.

What the study does not say

Pachter does not argue that cannabis users are bad parents. "I'm not suggesting that someone who uses marijuana can't be a good parent," he said. "My concern is about being impaired when you're responsible for a child's safety."

He also drew the comparison most parents will recognize. "We wouldn't automatically consider daily alcohol use harmless, and we shouldn't look at marijuana that way, either," he said.

The numbers describe how often parents report using. They are survey estimates, not a count of impaired caregivers or of injured children. "Most days" use covers everything from an evening edible after bedtime to use during the hours a child needs supervision, and the figures do not separate the two.

What remains open

The study documents the trend. It does not identify why use climbed fastest among younger, unmarried and lower-income parents, and the sources do not report any measurement of how children in these homes fared.

It is unclear whether the link between parental and child use that Pachter cites reflects the household example, shared circumstances, or something else. No one cited has said the cause is established.

The UC San Diego team's data stops at 2024. Whether the rise has continued since is not covered in the findings.