Marijuana Use Still High Among College Students

Marijuana use among college students remains at an all-time high, according to a new study out of the University of Michigan.

The Monitoring the Future study has looked at the attitudes and behaviors of teenagers, college students and young adults since 1975.

The 2017 report found that 38 percent of full-time college students ages 19 to 22 reported using marijuana at least once in the past year -- 21 percent reported using it at least once in the past 30 days. That represents a gradual increase over the past decade.

Young adults in the same age bracket who only graduated high school and are not full-time college students use marijuana at a higher rate -- 41 percent of them reported using in the past year.

More than 4 percent of college students reported using marijuana daily or near daily, meaning they used it on 20 occasions in the past 30 days.

But about 13 percent of noncollege youth reported using marijuana daily. Researchers reported that both college and noncollege students felt the risk of using marijuana was lower than in past years.

"The continued increase of daily marijuana use among non-college youth is especially worrisome," John Schulenberg, principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future Panel Study, said in a statement. "The brain is still growing in the early 20s, and the scientific evidence indicates that heavy marijuana use can be detrimental to cognitive functioning and mental health."