A new study reveals that daily marijuana use has surpassed alcohol consumption. What does this mean for the industry?

• For the first time, more Americans are using marijuana regularly than alcohol.
• The rate of daily or near-daily cannabis use among individuals increased 15-fold from 1992 to 2022.
• Some Wall Street analysts predict that the rise in cannabis adoption could lead to a merger of the alcohol industry and a decline in beer sales.

Americans are reaching for buds more than booze.

In the U.S., marijuana use is more frequent than drinking on a daily or near-daily basis, according to a 40-year analysis by Carnegie Mellon University.

Over 1.6 million U.S. participants were included in the analysis of data collected through 27 surveys spanning from 1979 to 2022.

In 2022, for the first time, daily marijuana use surpassed drinking at the same frequency, with approximately 17.7 million cannabis users and 14.7 million drinkers.

Since 1992, the number of Americans who use cannabis daily has increased by 15 times, from 900,000 to 8.9 million, compared to the 8.9 million daily drinkers.

According to Scott Fortune, an analyst at Roth MKM, data shows that the younger demographic is more likely to use cannabis daily and monthly at a higher rate than other generations.

"If young generations grow up with legal cannabis options, we believe that acceptance of cannabis will increase and lead to a decrease in the use of traditional pleasure options such as alcohol and tobacco," he stated.

As the cannabis industry anticipates the Drug Enforcement Administration to relax federal restrictions and reclassify marijuana, companies like , and will have increased access to funding, research, and investment opportunities.

Despite shifting trends among younger consumers, the spirits and alcohol industry is working to maintain its market share.

Bill Kirk, a Roth MKM analyst, stated that the youngest legal drinking-age consumers in the U.S. are less likely to turn to alcohol and when they do, they consume fewer drinks.

Kirk stated that there has been a rise in certain trends that are contributing to this, such as a decline in alcohol consumption, the availability of high-quality non-alcoholic alternatives, and an increase in cannabis use.

Fortune stated that while the cannabis industry may not see alcohol as being negatively affected by this trend, they would look for opportunities to partner, invest, or acquire alcohol in the U.S. cannabis market once federal regulations allow it to capitalize on the anticipated growth of the industry.

Some Wall Street analysts anticipate a greater impact on the alcohol industry due to the adoption of cannabis.

According to Bernstein analyst Nadine Sarwat, legal cannabis could potentially decrease beer volume compound annual growth rate by up to 230 bps in Canada and 75 bps in the U.S. where it is legal.

The conflicting state-by-state policies for cannabis soften the blow to the biggest brewers and distillers, including Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, and Diageo.

The potential for increased risk to alcohol due to federal legalization seems distant in the current political climate, according to Sarwat.