---
title: "Nearly half of adults say they’ve tried marijuana, but not recently"
description: "About one in eight Americans say they've used marijuana within the past year."
date: "2013-06-03"
authors:
  - name: "Drew DeSilver"
    job_title: "Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/drew-desilver/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/06/03/more-than-a-third-of-adults-say-theyve-tried-pot-but-not-recently/"
---

# Nearly half of adults say they’ve tried marijuana, but not recently

More Americans than ever say they've smoked marijuana, but for most of them it doesn't seem to have become a habit.

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/04/4-4-13-14.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports-legalizing-marijuana/#use-increases)

In a recent [Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports-legalizing-marijuana/#use-increases), 48% of adults said they had tried marijuana, up from 40% just three years ago. But among that group, just 12% said they had smoked marijuana within the past year.

Among that group, marijuana use is primarily recreational: Nearly half (47%) said they smoked "just for fun," versus 30% who cited a medical issue, while 23% cited both reasons.

More than half (56%) of young adults say they've tried marijuana, and 27% say they've smoked it in the past year -- by far the highest percentage in any age category. That's also the age group showing the strongest support for legalizing the demon weed: 64%, compared with just over half of 30- to 64-year-olds.

Among that older group, about half of people ages 30 to 49 (51%) and 50 to 64 (54%) have tried marijuana, although only about one in ten did so last year. Just 22% of adults 65 and older say they've ever used marijuana, though a third support its legalization. [Read more](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports-legalizing-marijuana/#use-increases)

***See a [slideshow](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/04/04/marijuana-changing-attitudes/marijuana_slideshow/) on changing attitudes about marijuana.***