About 11.3% of teens aged 12 to 17 used marijuana in the past year, based on the most recent federal survey data from 2022-2023. That translates to roughly 1 in 9 adolescents. Among older teens, usage rates climb higher: approximately 6% of high school seniors use marijuana daily, a rate that has increased over the past decade.
Overall Usage Rates
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) tracks drug use through its annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The 2022-2023 data show 11.3% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 used marijuana at least once in the past year. That percentage has held relatively steady in recent years, even as more states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults.
Usage increases sharply with age. Younger teens in the 12-to-14 range use marijuana at much lower rates than 16- and 17-year-olds. By 12th grade, daily or near-daily use reaches about 6%, according to data tracked by Columbia University researchers. That daily-use figure is the one that concerns health experts most, because frequent exposure during adolescence carries a different risk profile than occasional experimentation.
Who Uses Marijuana Most
Teen marijuana use isn’t evenly distributed across demographics. A 2024 analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, covering trends from 2013 to 2021, found that female teens now use cannabis at higher rates than male teens: 16.75% compared to 13.83%. That’s a notable shift from earlier decades when boys consistently reported higher usage.
The same analysis found differences by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic teens reported higher usage rates (17.19% and 16.14%, respectively) than white teens (14.60%). These gaps have been evolving over the past decade, and researchers point to differences in access, social environment, and enforcement patterns as contributing factors.
Has Legalization Changed Teen Use?
One of the most common concerns about state-level legalization is that it would cause teen use to spike. So far, the data don’t support that. A 2025 review published in ScienceDirect concluded that adolescent cannabis use has remained relatively stable despite the rapidly changing legal landscape. Young adult use (ages 18 to 25) has increased, but the teen numbers have not followed the same trajectory.
That said, legalization hasn’t been without consequences for younger age groups. Cannabis-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations among children and adolescents have increased. This is likely tied to the wider availability of high-potency products like edibles and concentrates, which are easier for younger users to accidentally consume in dangerous amounts. The overall number of teens trying marijuana hasn’t changed much, but the types of products available and their potency have.
How Teens Perceive the Risk
Teen behavior is closely linked to how risky they believe something is, and marijuana’s perceived danger has been declining for years. SAMHSA data from 2013-2014 found that only about 1 in 4 teens (23.5%) believed smoking marijuana once a month posed a “great risk” of harm. That number had already dropped from 25.3% just one survey cycle earlier, and the trend has continued downward since.
This matters because decades of drug-use research consistently show that when perceived risk drops, usage tends to rise, or at minimum stays elevated. The growing normalization of cannabis in popular culture, combined with adult legalization in many states, has made it harder for teens to view marijuana as something genuinely dangerous. Whether that perception is accurate depends on the individual and the pattern of use, but it does help explain why teen marijuana use has stayed as high as it has even while cigarette and alcohol use among teens have declined significantly.
Effects on the Developing Brain
The teenage brain is still under construction. The prefrontal cortex, which handles decision-making, impulse control, and planning, doesn’t fully mature until the mid-20s. Marijuana interferes with that process. Regular use during adolescence can disrupt learning, memory, coordination, reaction time, and judgment, according to Mayo Clinic researchers.
These aren’t just short-term effects that wear off when the high does. Columbia University research found that any level of cannabis use among teens was associated with measurable impacts on emotional health and academic performance. Teens who used marijuana, even without meeting criteria for a use disorder, showed differences in these areas compared to non-users. The effects are more pronounced with heavier and earlier use, but they aren’t limited to daily users.
For a teen who tries marijuana once or twice, the long-term cognitive risks are minimal. The concern is with the pattern that develops for a subset of users: regular use that starts in early adolescence and continues through the years when the brain is most actively developing. That pattern is associated with lasting changes in cognitive function that persist into adulthood.