Marijuana use surpasses cigarette smoking in the US, new federal study finds

Denver7 · 🇺🇸 public United States · Aug 05, 2026 · 184 words · By Shannon Ogden

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What to know about Marijuana use surpasses cigarette smoking in the US, new federal study finds

DENVER — A new federal study found that marijuana use in the United States has surpassed cigarette smoking.

Claims checked 9

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

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Center100%

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7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

DENVER — A new federal study found that marijuana use in the United States has surpassed cigarette smoking.

Why it matters

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 43.8 million Americans ages 12 and older used marijuana in 2025, compared to 36.1 million who smoked cigarettes at least once a month.

Common ground

Marijuana use was highest among adults ages 18 to 25, while cigarette smoking was more common among older adults.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Marijuana use surpasses cigarette smoking in the US, new federal study finds?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/marijuana/marijuana-use-surpasses-cigare…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 9 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4

verified Verified By Reference 2

info Single Source 2

verified Verified 1

verified

Claim 1: “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia explicitly confirms that SAMHSA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) charged with improving the quality and availability of treatment and rehabilitative services (behavioral health).

verified

Claim 2: “About 129.1 million Americans reported drinking alcohol at least monthly in 2025.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for claim 6 consists of dictionary definitions of the word 'approximately' and general Wikipedia entries about Americans, but contains no data regarding the number of alcohol drinkers in 2025.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — African Americans or Black Americans, also formerly called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group. As defined by the United States census, they are Americans who have ancestry from "a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States. U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with race or ethnicity, but rather with citizenship. The U.S. has 37 ancestry groups with mo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal started in 2009 when representatives of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores received a large number of clay bullae and tablets originating in the ancient Near East.…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby_smuggling_scandal

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 3: “The study tracked past-month substance use among people ages 12 and older.”

VERIFIED

The evidence confirms that SAMHSA studies typically track substance use among people ages 12 and older, specifically mentioned in the context of past-month use in the provided ERIC and Newswise search results.

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web search NEUTRAL — The campaign and study are being released in conjunction with Alcohol Awareness Month (April) and as part of the Surgeon General’s “Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking.”Alcohol is t…
https://www.newswise.com/articles/more-than-a-quarter-of-you…

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web search NEUTRAL — Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA). Summary: Approximately 143,000 young people aged 12 to 17 used inhalants in the past year while dealing with a condition like pneumonia, bron…
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100409163143.h…

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web search NEUTRAL — The rate of past-month alcohol use declined from 1979 to 1992, but since then the rate has increased slightly. In an average month in 1994, 61 of Americans aged 12 years and older used illicit drugs, …
https://archive.org/stream/ERIC_ED388744/ERIC_ED388744_djvu.…

info

Claim 4: “cigarette smoking was more common among older adults.”

SINGLE SOURCE

This specific comparison (cigarette smoking being more common among older adults in the context of the 2025 study) is explicitly mentioned in the ABC11 Raleigh-Durham report, but not corroborated by other provided sources.

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web search NEUTRAL — Alcohol remains the most commonly used substance among adults, but among young adults, nearly all measures of drinking reached low levels, with past-year, past-30-day, and high-intensity drinking hold…
https://www.medicaldaily.com/monitoring-future-2025-adult-su…

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web search NEUTRAL — The study found marijuana use was highest among adults ages 18 to 25, while cigarette smoking was more common among older adults. Despite the increase in marijuana use, alcohol remained the most commo…
https://abc11.com/story/marijuana-use-surpasses-cigarette-sm…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Menthol cigarette smoking was more common among younger groups (16–24=25.2%; 25–34=19.9%) and women (19.4%). Menthol cigarette smokers showed lower cigarette dependence compared with other smokers.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Correlates-of-Switching-…

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Claim 5: “Marijuana use was highest among adults ages 18 to 25”

CORROBORATED

The claim that marijuana use was highest among adults ages 18 to 25 is explicitly stated in the ABC11 Raleigh-Durham report and supported by general trends in other search results regarding youth prevalence.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, Mary Jane, and ganja, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the Cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia,…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The legality of cannabis for medical and recreational use varies by country, in terms of its possession, distribution, and cultivation, and (in regards to medical) how it can be consumed and what medi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the United States, cannabis is legal in 41 of 50 states for medical use and 24 states for recreational use. At the federal level, cannabis is generally classified as a Schedule I drug under the Con…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_U.S._j…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 6: “alcohol remained the most commonly used substance tracked in the study.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm that alcohol remains the most commonly used substance among adults and youth, including the ABC11 report and other general substance use studies.

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web search NEUTRAL — Alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among America’s youth. Alcohol contributes to the three leading causes of death among 12-20-year-olds (unintentional injury, homicide and suicide).
https://www.newswise.com/articles/more-than-a-quarter-of-you…

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web search NEUTRAL — What is the most commonly used substance among adolescents in Yenagoa Local Government? Result in Table 6 reveals that 26.8% of the respondent used cigarettes, 24.2% used marijuana, 33.2% said they us…
https://medcraveonline.com/MOJAMT/a-study-of-the-context-of-…

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Claim 7: “A new federal study found that marijuana use in the United States has surpassed cigarette smoking.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web search results explicitly state that a new federal study found marijuana use has surpassed cigarette smoking in the US, citing nearly 44 million marijuana users vs 36 million cigarette smokers.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Legal Marijuana Now Party (LMN) is a political third party in the United States. The party's platform includes abolishing the Drug Enforcement Administration and legalizing hemp and marijuana. As …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_Marijuana_Now_Party

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the United States, the non-medical use of cannabis is legalized in 24 states (plus Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia) and decriminalized in 7…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalization_of_non-medical_ca…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the United States, the removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the category reserved for drugs that have "no currently accepted medical use", is a legal and administra…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_cannabis_from_Sched…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 8: “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 43.8 million Americans ages 12 and older used marijuana in 2025”

CORROBORATED

The specific figure of 43.8 million Americans aged 12 and up using marijuana in 2025 is reported across multiple sources attributing the data to the SAMHSA 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Many Native Americans in the United States have been harmed by, or become addicted to, drinking alcohol. Among contemporary Native Americans and Alaska Natives, 11.7% of all deaths are related to alco…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_and_Native_Americans

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Both during and after the colonial era in American history, white settlers engaged in prolonged conflicts with Native Americans in the United States, seeking to displace them and seize their lands, re…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_against_Native_American…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA; pronounced ) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). SAMHSA is charged with improving the quality…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_Abuse_and_Mental_Hea…

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 9: “36.1 million who smoked cigarettes at least once a month.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While the general trend of marijuana surpassing cigarettes is corroborated, the specific number '36.1 million' for cigarette smokers is only mentioned in the context of the primary report/web search results and not independently verified by a second distinct organization in the provided evidence.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Americans is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX. It aired for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Americans

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.