Age at First Use of Marijuana and Past Year Serious Mental Illness

The NSDUH Report:  Age at First Use of Marijuana and Past Year Serious Mental Illness

• HTML format

• PDF format

Highlights:

• Based on SAMHSA's 2002 and 2003 National Surveys on Drug Use & Health (NSDUH), an estimated 90.8 million adults (42.9%) aged 18 or older had used marijuana at least once in their lifetime. Among lifetime marijuana users aged 18 or older, 2.1% reported that they first used marijuana before age 12; 52.7% reported first marijuana use between ages 12 and 17, and 45.2% reported that they first used marijuana at age 18 or older.

• About 12.5 % of persons aged 18 or older who reported lifetime marijuana use were classified as having a serious mental illness (SMI) in the past year.
  

• Adults who first used marijuana before age 12 (21%) were twice as likely as adults who first used marijuana at age 18 or older (10.5%) to be classified as having a serious mental illness in the past year.

Reports on marijuana

Reports on age of first use

Reports on mental illness

Other drugs

Other topics

Other OAS publications and services

This Short Report, The NSDUH Report:  Age at First Use of Marijuana and Past Year Serious Mental Illness, is based on SAMHSA's  National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse and for selected mental health measures in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.   SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use & Health also provides estimates for drug use and for selected mental health measures by State.

This page has been accessed 99207 times since 5/3/05.

This page was last updated on July 27, 2006.

What's New