Marijuana Use, by Adult Educational Attainment and Current Employment (Tables 3.1 to 3.3)

When comparing marijuana prevalence rates by educational attainment, very different patterns emerged among adults by age group. (Youths 12 to 17 years of age were omitted from these analyses.) For younger adults (18 to 25), marijuana use was fairly equal across all educational levels, except for higher rates of past year use among those with less education, and lower rates of current use among college graduates than among those with less than a high school degree and those with some college. For middle adults aged 26 to 34, individuals with a college degree (5%) had significantly lower rates of current marijuana use than those with less than a high school diploma (8%). For those aged 35 or older, those with some college reported higher past year and past month rates of use than those with college degrees. Overall, college graduates reported lower levels of past year and past month marijuana use than those in all other education categories (OAS, 1998d, Table 41A).

Among the total surveyed adult population, past year and past month marijuana use were substantially higher among the unemployed than in any other employment category. (As with educational attainment, these analyses by employment status omit respondents 12 to 17 years of age.) The lowest rates were among the "other" category, which included retirees, homemakers, disabled people, and students. For example, over 20% of the unemployed respondents had used marijuana in the past year, whereas only 4% of respondents in the "other" category had done likewise. Comparable numbers for past month use were 12% and 2%. Although the rates of past month use were lower among employed persons than among the unemployed, they still represent a substantial number of marijuana users. An estimated 5.1 million current marijuana users were employed full-time, 1.4 million were employed part-time, and 1.0 million were unemployed (OAS, 1998d, Table 41B).

This page was last updated on December 30, 2008.