The share of substance use treatment admissions involving marijuana as the primary substance has fallen by roughly 20% since 2020, according to newly released federal data.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently released its 2024 Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), which tracks admissions to and discharges from substance use treatment facilities reported by state agencies.
The data continue a multiyear decline in marijuana-related treatment admissions. In 2020, marijuana was listed as the primary substance in 146,532 admissions, accounting for 9.2% of all admissions recorded in the federal dataset. By 2023, that had fallen to 125,085 admissions, or 7.6% of the total, with the newly released 2024 data extending the decline.
Overall, the percentage of treatment admissions attributed primarily to marijuana fell by about one-fifth between 2020 and 2024, even as marijuana use among adults has become increasingly common and additional states have legalized the substance.
The federal data also show considerable differences among states. Several states where recreational marijuana remains illegal continue to report relatively high rates of marijuana-related treatment admissions, while some states with established legal markets report substantially lower rates.
However, SAMHSA cautions against using the figures as a measure of the prevalence of marijuana use or marijuana use disorder among the general population. TEDS tracks treatment admissions rather than individual patients, meaning the same person can be counted more than once if they enter treatment multiple times during a year.
The agency also notes that comparisons between states should be made cautiously because reporting requirements, public funding systems and treatment practices differ by jurisdiction.
TEDS includes information from treatment facilities licensed, funded or operated by state substance use agencies, with data reported from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
