Marijuana use typically drops at the beginning of the year, then climbs in summer and fall

Marijuana use increases throughout the calendar year, with use up 13 percent on average at the end of each year compared to the beginning, according to a new NYU study. Credit: Louliana Voelker for NYU; icons by Guilherme Furtado and Made (Noun Project) licensed as Creative Commons CCBY.

Marijuana use increases throughout the calendar year, with use up 13 percent on average at the end of each year (2015-2019) compared to the beginning, according to a new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

“We found that marijuana use is consistently higher among those surveyed later in the year, peaking during late fall or early winter before dropping at the beginning of the following year. We think this may be due, in part, to a ‘Dry January’ in which some people stop drinking alcohol or even stop using marijuana as part of a New Year’s resolution,” said Joseph Palamar, Ph.D., MPH, an associate professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, an affiliated researcher…

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