San Francisco Ranks Highest in Nation for Cannabis Use

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), San Francisco ranks highest among the cities that use cannabis. SAMHSA utilized data compiled by National Surveys on Drug Use and Health in order to pull up recent stats regarding cannabis use across the country for people 12 and older (why they chose age 12 is unspecified).

The data that was collected this time around occurred between 2012 and 2014, with an approximate total of 204,000 surveyed people. In their findings, SAMHSA reports that over 15 percent of people in San Francisco over the age of 12 use cannabis on a monthly basis. For comparison’s sake, the lowest concentration of cannabis use in the country is four percent monthly use in Southern Texas, according to The Washington Post.

On a national level, about 7.7 percent of people (aka 20.3 million Americans) use cannabis monthly. Of the monthly uses, the reports found that cannabis use is highest in the western states and lowest in the south. Because the reports only span between 2012-2014, the numbers do not reflect stats related to recreational cannabis legalization—yet.

However obvious it may be, SAMHSA’s study also shows that people who use cannabis also believe it be less harmful, and those who do not use cannabis believe it to be more harmful. The study also found that roughly, the harmfulness can been seen as linked between the high or lower use of cannabis in any particular area. For example, 50 percent of people in Miami-Dade County, Florida thought cannabis was harmful, and only about five percent of people in that area use cannabis. However, in the District of Columbia where it recreationally legal, only 14 percent of people thought there is a “great risk of harm” in cannabis use.

Before the most recent SAMHSA study, the organization did a similar study reviewing information gathered between 2010-2012. If the organization sticks to its two-year study progress, by the time the 2014-2016 study releases a few years from now, there’s no doubt that it will show an even high statistic and more positive attitude toward cannabis—and San Francisco is likely to still be at the top of that list.