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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce the proportion of people who had marijuana use disorder in the past year — SU‑14 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About this objective  |  Methodology  |  History

About this objective

Data

Data Source:  National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), SAMHSA

National baseline: 6.0 percent of persons aged 12 years and over had a marijuana use disorder (defined as meeting DSM-IV criteria) in the past 12 months in 2021

National target: 5.5 percent

Numerator
Number of persons aged 12 years and over with marijuana use disorder (defined as meeting DSM-5 criteria) in the past 12 months.
Denominator
Number of persons aged 12 years and over.
National target-setting method
Minimal statistical significance
National target-setting method details
Minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline.
National target-setting method justification
Trend data are not available due to the NSDUH redesign. Data from 2021 cannot be compared or combined with data from previous years. The standard error was used to calculate a target based on minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline. The Workgroup Subject Matter Experts viewed this as an ambitious yet achievable target.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

Numerator:
DRMJ01 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, was there a month or more when you spent a lot of your time getting or using marijuana or hashish?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ02 [IF DRMJ01 = 2 OR DK/REF] During the past 12 months, was there a month or more when you spent a lot of your time getting over the effects of the marijuana or hashish you used?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ04 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, did you try to set limits on how often or how much marijuana or hashish you would use?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ05 [IF DRMJ04 = 1] Were you able to keep to the limits you set, or did you often use marijuana or hashish more than you intended to?
  1. Usually kept to the limits set
  2. Often drank more than intended
DRMJ06 [IF MAR12MON = 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, did you need to use more marijuana or hashish than you used to in order to get the effect you wanted?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ07 [IF DRMJ06=2 OR DK/REF] During the past 12 months, did you notice that using the same amount of marijuana or hashish had less effect on you than it used to?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ08 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, did you want to or try to cut down or stop using marijuana or hashish?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ09 [IF DRMJ08 = 1] During the past 12 months, were you able to cut down or stop using marijuana or hashish every time you wanted to or tried to?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ13 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, did you have any problems with your emotions, nerves, or mental health that were probably caused or made worse by your use of marijuana or hashish?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ14 [IF DRMJ13 = 1] Did you continue to use marijuana or hashish even though you thought it was causing you to have problems with your emotions, nerves, or mental health?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ15 [IF DRMJ13 = 2 OR DK/REF OR DRMJ14 = 2 OR DK/REF] During the past 12 months, did you have any physical health problems that were probably caused or made worse by your use of marijuana or hashish?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ16 [IF DRMJ15 = 1] Did you continue to use marijuana or hashish even though you thought it was causing you to have physical problems?
  1. Yes
  2. No

DRMJ17 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] This question is about important activities such as working, going to school, taking care of children, doing fun things such as hobbies and sports, and spending time with friends and family.

During the past 12 months, did using marijuana or hashish cause you to give up or spend less time doing these types of important activities?

  1. Yes
  2. No

DRMJ18 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] Sometimes people who use marijuana or hashish have serious problems at home, work or school — such as:

  • neglecting their children
  • missing work or school
  • doing a poor job at work or school
  • losing a job or dropping out of school
During the past 12 months, did using marijuana or hashish cause you to have serious problems like this either at home, work, or school?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ19 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, did you regularly use marijuana or hashish and then do something where using marijuana or hashish might have put you in physical danger?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ20 [IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, did using marijuana or hashish cause you to do things that repeatedly got you in trouble with the law?
  1. Yes
  2. No
[IF MAR12MON= 1 - 3] During the past 12 months, did you have any problems with family or friends that were probably caused by your use of marijuana or hashish?
  1. Yes
  2. No
DRMJ22 [IF DRMJ21 = 1] Did you continue to use marijuana or hashish even though you thought it caused problems with family or friends?
  1. Yes
  2. No

Methodology notes

Marijuana use disorder was defined as meeting criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5). Respondents who used marijuana on 6 or more days in the past 12 months were classified as having a marijuana use disorder in that period if they met two or more of the following criteria: (1) used marijuana in larger amounts or for a longer time period than intended; (2) had a persistent desire or made unsuccessful attempts to cut down on marijuana use; (3) spent a great deal of time in activities to obtain, use, or recover from marijuana use; (4) felt a craving or strong desire to use marijuana; (5) engaged in recurrent marijuana use resulting in failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home; (6) continued to use marijuana despite social or interpersonal problems caused by the effects of marijuana; (7) gave up or reduced important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of marijuana use; (8) continued to use marijuana in physically hazardous situations; (9) continued to use marijuana despite physical or psychological problems caused by marijuana use; (10) increased the amount of marijuana needed to achieve same effect or noticed that the same amount of marijuana use had less effect than before; and (11) either of the following: (11a) experienced a required number of withdrawal symptoms after cutting back or stopping marijuana use or (11b) used marijuana or a related substance to get over or avoid marijuana withdrawal symptoms.

History

Revision History
Revised. 

In 2024, the baseline was revised from 1.6% in 2018 to 6.0% in 2021. The target setting method changed from projection to minimal statistical significance. The target was revised from 1.3% to 5.5% using the 2021 data.
Trend issues
SAMHSA started multimode data collection (in-person and web-based collection) for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) beginning in Quarter 4 (i.e., October to December) of 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 NSDUH is based on both in-person and web interviews. Prior to 2020, NSDUH data are based on in-person data collection alone. The 2020 NSDUH included only 2 quarters (Quarters 1 and 4) of data collection unlike the four quarters of data collected in other years. Several analyses were conducted to investigate the impacts of these and related methodological issues on estimates for 2021. Using the outcomes of the comparability analyses, the following decisions were made regarding the 2021 NSDUH data. • Estimates from 2021 cannot be compared with those in 2019 or prior years because estimates from a multimode year are not comparable with estimates from a single-mode year. Estimates of change from 2019 or earlier to 2021 would probably be too greatly influenced by the mode effect. • Because of effects on estimates when some quarters of data are excluded or missing, 2020 estimates (based on two quarters of data) cannot be compared with those of any other year, including 2021. Using only 2 quarters of data may yield a different trend than use of 4 quarters of data. • NSDUH data from 2021 should not be combined or compared with any prior data • In addition, the criteria used to categorize substance use disorder (SUD) among NSDUH respondents changed in 2020 and onward from the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) to the fifth edition (DSM-5), resulting in some differences in who is classified as having an SUD.