Young Americans Are Not Alright As Marijuana Becomes the Most Commonly Used Drug

Marijuana is certainly nothing new. From the hippies and counterculture of the '60s to Jeff Spicoli (played by Sean Penn) and his buddies falling out of a van in a cloud of smoke in the '80s movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," it has been young people, though not exclusively, who have been the chief indulgers.

But a sobering new report shows that today's young users are not just out to get a giggly high and devour large quantities of Doritos and Twinkies; in many cases, they're using for more troubling reasons — often resulting in serious side effects.

Marijuana psychosis is very much a thing and I’ve seen in a LOT of my high school graduate class… & majority of them were the popular/most attractive kids. Now they’re…. Lost. & weird.

It’s a thing.
— 𝓡𝓪𝓷𝓭𝔂🪐🪄 (@Iam_randy07) August 3, 2026

According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emergency room visits and hospitalizations for younger Americans for marijuana-related incidents are rising. Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is cyclical vomiting due to frequent cannabis use. From October 2025 through May 2026, it has risen 16 percent and could be a sign that young people are using the drug more as a way of coping with anxiety and uncertainty.

This grim CDC report comes after a 2025 report from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), that showed that roughly 21.4 million Americans use cannabis daily or almost daily. That usage outpaces around 19.9 million cigarette smokers and 17.2 million alcohol consumers.

Around 33.7 percent of marijuana users are between the ages of 18 and 25. But it's Gen Z where a whole host of problems come in. The first one is self-medicating. A July study from Harmony Healthcare IT showed that 34 percent of Gen Zers said they took some kind of mental health prescription medication, and 19 percent said they self-medicated. The study also showed that 46 percent of Gen Zers said they had been diagnosed with some sort of mental health condition, and another 37 percent suspect they have one, with depression and anxiety being the most common.

Weed Is America’s Most Commonly Used Drug Now as Cannabis-Related Hospitalizations Rise - Young people use it every day because they are so mentally discombobulated they can't cope with the state of the world
— Lois Levine Fishman (@FishmanLevine) August 9, 2026

The reasons suggested for the increased usage range from being addicted to phones and social media to believing the economy is uncertain. Sure, there are pressures on Gen Z that most Gen Xers would have never dreamed of, like cyber-bullying, and they are much more in-your-face than ever before. But young people being bombarded with how they should look, act, and feel has gone on forever. So, how have they gotten this way? Is it helicopter parents who can't seem to let little Johnny out of their sight so he can learn to be responsible and trustworthy? Or something more?

ALSO READ: Trump DOJ Takes Major Step on Marijuana Rescheduling, Sparks Pushback

And what about the physical problems that come from daily cannabis use? As noted above, there's been a significant uptick in hospital visits attributed to cannabis consumption. Other side effects are easily predictable. Like the study of 11,000 teenagers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine that found adolescents who begin using cannabis have slower gains in memory, attention, and thinking skills over time compared to their non-cannabis-using counterparts. What happens to those same teens as they get older and try to function normally in life? In extreme cases, you get the streets of New York City or San Francisco.

The outlook doesn't get a whole lot brighter. Because the legalized cannabis industry is expected to pull in roughly $47 billion in 2026, can we expect Gen Z to continue to, as 60s drug guru Timothy Leary instructed, "turn on, tune in, drop out" because they are unable to cope with life? State revenue for legalized marijuana is great, but just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Alarming new study shows daily marijuana use passes alcohol, cigaretteshttps://t.co/QYU5ruRNuT
— Gr8fulNurse 𝕏 (@Gr8fulSusan) August 3, 2026

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