Every time cannabis reform comes up in Kentucky, somebody warns that it will put weed in kids’ hands.
The federal government’s own new survey says the opposite is happening.
According to the 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with more than 60,000 respondents across all 50 states and D.C.:
Teenagers are using less.
Past-year marijuana use among adolescents aged 12–17 fell from 10.9% in 2021 to 8.7% in 2025. Even better, the share of teens starting marijuana fell from 3.5% to 2.4% — and SAMHSA’s own prevention director says that decline started before the pandemic and looks like a durable trend.
Young adults aged 18–25 moved the same direction: past-year marijuana use fell from 36.3% to 33.7%.
Adults are the ones using more.
Among adults 26 and older, past-year marijuana use rose from 17.3% in 2021 to 20.6% in 2025 — from 38.2 million people to 47.2 million. That’s the real growth story, and it happened during the same years more states legalized or decriminalized cannabis.
What this means for Kentucky
The scare story has it backwards. The people whose use is rising are adults — the same adults Kentucky still arrests. In 2025, Kentucky made 2,718 cannabis arrests, and 80% were for simple possession.
KCFC’s proposal was written with exactly this split in mind: adults 21 and older could possess up to one ounce and cultivate, harvest, and store up to five plants for personal use — with plants kept out of public view and away from kids. Nothing in it legalizes use by minors. And the national data now shows that an adult-focused policy is not the threat to teens its opponents claim.
Kentucky doesn’t need another year of arresting adults while the data says the kids are fine. It needs voters to decide.
Take action
✍️ Sign the petition — 10,400+ verified signatures and counting: https://change.org/LetKentuckyVote
📞 Call the Kentucky legislative message hotline at 1-800-372-7181 and tell your state senator and representative: put cannabis decriminalization on the ballot.
Source: 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (SAMHSA), as reported by ReachMD, October 21, 2026 — https://reachmd.com/news/youth-substance-use-declined-older-adult-marijuana-use-rose/2488766/ ; Marijuana Policy Project / FBI Crime Explorer arrest data (2025).
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