Smoking remains America’s preferred method of cannabis consumption, study finds

OG Article

• Kevin Dinneen

• April 29, 2025

A study conducted by the US Government has found that 80% of Americans who use cannabis report combustion as their primary method of consumption. The second most common route of consumption reported was ingesting cannabis via edibles or oils, and nearly half of those surveyed claimed to utilise multiple methods to take it.

For thousands of years, people have consumed cannabis, and the methods used to transfer the active ingredients from the plant to the user have been many and varied. Smoking cannabis in rolling papers or bongs and pipes has long been a mainstay for most, but with the opening up of cannabis markets across the world, new ways to consume, such as dabbing and vaporising, are becoming increasingly available.

The study, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was based on data compiled by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a nationwide medical survey conducted by telephone. The survey has been running from 1984, but questions about how cannabis is consumed were only introduced in 2022.

The telephone survey received responses from 138,000 people, and the data collected showed that 15.3% of them use cannabis. When asked which method of consumption they used most frequently, 79.4% stated smoking. Other methods reported were eating (41.6%), vaping (31.3%) and dabbing (14.6%).

Nearly 25% of respondents within the age groups 18-24 and 25-34 stated that they used cannabis regularly, with around 13% stating they used it every day. These age groups were also seen to use dabbing and vaping more frequently, possibly signalling which consumption methods may be favoured by future generations of cannabis users.

Studies investigating possible health issues resulting from dabbing and vaping cannabis are thin on the ground. However, most of the possible negative effects are psychologically based, such as developing Cannabis Use Disorder. Most scientists now seem to agree that smoking cannabis without tobacco has negligible negative effects on health.