Number of Marijuana Abuse Treatment Admissions Increased

With the rapid increase in the population the number of marijuana abusers are also increasing, followed by the marijuana abuse treatment admissions. According to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health(NSDUH), marijuana was the most commonly used illicit drug among the general US population. More over the percentage of substance abuse treatment admissions reporting the abuse of marijuana increased from 26.8 percent to 37.3 percent in 2008.

According to the Treatment Episode Data Set(TEDS),2010 nearly 322,000 substance abuse treatment admissions reported marijuana as their primary substance of abuse which constitutes 17% of the total admissions, and 384,000 admissions reported marijuana as a secondary substance of abuse which constitutes 20.3 percent of all admissions.

To the surprise the proportion of males and females were similar among both of the primary and secondary marijuana admissions. In each group, males represent three quarters that is 73.7 percent of primary admissions and 69.2 percent of the secondary marijuana admissions.

The study also reported that 62% of the primary marijuana admissions were aged 12 to 24 while 70.2 percent of the secondary marijuana admissions were 25 or older. The average age of primary marijuana admissions was approximately 24, while the secondary admissions were aged 32.

TEDS also showed that the vast majority of both groups initiated marijuana before the age of 18 which include 87.6 percent of the primary marijuana admissions and 82.4 percent for secondary marijuana admissions.

These stats show the maximum use of marijuana and alerts the government to follow strict rules on marijuana possession and abuse.