If you noticed more New Year partygoers smoking pot than drinking alcohol this year, you’re not alone. Researchers say many Americans are putting down their cocktails and picking up a weed pipe, and it might be changing the cultural landscape in a big way.
As access to legal marijuana increases across the country, Americans are using it as an alternative to drinking or using other drugs. A new report from Bloomberg Intelligence found that a significant amount of Americans were substituting pot for alcohol, cigarettes and pain killers.
Notably, the number of people using marijuana to replace alcohol saw a “sudden spike”—rising from 33% in 2022 to 44% in 2024. Meanwhile, the number of people substituting weed for cigarettes and painkillers significantly lowered in the same time—from 39% to 30% and from 35% to 30%, respectively.
The survey was conducted in December 2024 with over 2,500 participants. The report found that more than half of the country’s marijuana consumers substitute it for beer and spirits, and nearly half substitute it for wine.
The Bloomberg Intelligence analysts noted that these trends align with previous surveys, implying that marijuana can play a role in shifting consumer habits away from more harmful substances. The idea has long been pushed by weed advocates, and it seems that the reality is living up to the hype.
Meanwhile, a study that was published in late December in the journal Addiction found that among adults between the ages of 19 and 30, daily marijuana use far outpaces daily alcohol use.
Authored by University of Michigan research professor Megan E. Patrick, the study used data gathered from 1988 to 2023 from the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) Panel Study, which surveys approximately 20,000 people across three age groups every year. It found that cannabis use among young adults has surged nearly 75% over the last decade.
When comparing daily alcohol use to marijuana use, it was no contest. Over 10% of adults between 19 and 30 reported using weed every day, while only 3.6% reported daily drinking. The number of daily drinkers itself dropped significantly — dropping from 5.5 percent in 2013.
Daily cannabis use among adults over 35 has also increased in recent years, while alcohol use has dropped among early midlife adults (between the ages of 35 and 50). Alcohol use in general among this group dropped by 20% from 2018 to 2023.
Daily use of marijuana among early midlife adults beat daily drinking by a slim margin—7.8% compared to 7.5%. In adults over 50, however, daily alcohol use is more than double daily weed use—11.4% to 5.2%.
The study supports the conclusions made in another paper published last year in Addiction that found that daily cannabis use per capita saw a 15-fold increase between 1992 and 2022. According to the study, there were 17.7 million daily cannabis users compared to 14.7 million daily alcohol users in 2022.
In Canada researchers found that weed legalization coincided with losses in beer sales. In a study published last year in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers from the University of Manitoba, Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Toronto discovered that beer sales in Canada have steadily declined since the legalization of marijuana in 2018.
The decline in beer sales was primarily driven by a reduction in sales of canned and kegged beer, while sales of spirits and bottled beer remained unchanged. They said the evidence points toward a potential shifting preference in home consumption habits.
In all of these instances, the researchers theorized that the increase in use of cannabis and subsequent decrease in the use of alcohol can both be attributed to the legalization and destigmatization of marijuana along with an increase in the perception that alcohol is less healthy.
This has significant implication for the alcohol industry. As cannabis gains popularity, particularly among younger demographics, alcohol producers face increasing competition. A separate Bloomberg Intelligence analysis from September 2024 highlighted that this poses a “significant threat” to the alcohol industry.
Bloomberg Intelligence’s analysis suggests that this trend could draw higher interest in cannabis markets from alcohol producers. Alcohol companies like Altria, Constellation Brands, British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands have already invested in Canadian cannabis producers. In 2023 Anheuser-Busch, owner of popular beer brands like Budweiser, Michelob and Beck’s, sold eight beer and beverage brands to cannabis giant Tilray, signaling a major shift in market power.
It’s been suggested that this shift has gotten some gas from increased interest in healthy living. Marijuana is increasingly viewed as a safer alternative to other substances, including opioids and methamphetamine as well as alcohol.
The respondents of an August Gallup poll said they felt that marijuana was less harmful than tobacco, nicotine and alcohol. Most said they believed that marijuana was “somewhat harmful” (40%) while only 26% said they thought it was “very harmful.”
Those beliefs will be put to the test in the coming years now that scientists have more access to marijuana. And that access will only increase if the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decides to reschedule marijuana — which is expected to happen in the near future as long as the Trump administration refrains from interfering in the process.
The shift away from alcohol and toward weed will also likely carry some cultural changes with it. According to recent studies, cannabis actually seems to make users nicer by increasing the ability to empathize and improving pro-social behaviors like protectiveness over vulnerable individuals and the sense of fairness. These are drastically different behaviors than those associated with alcohol use, and the societal impact may be greater than anyone can imagine.