Cannabis use among Minnesota ninth- and 11th-graders has dropped by more than 60% over the past decade, according to a study out of the University of Minnesota Medical School. Researchers found past-30-day use fell from about 13% in 2013 to 5% in 2025, using data from the Minnesota Student Survey.
The study was led by Marla Eisenberg, a professor in the Medical School, working with researchers from the University of Connecticut and the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute. It was published in the journal Social Science & Medicine and tracked how use rates and disparities shifted across sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status from 2013 to 2025.
"This is kind of a good news, bad news story," Eisenberg said. "We were really glad to see that the major decreases in cannabis use across Minnesota youth were not just limited to some groups."
The decline held up broadly across demographic lines, and some old gaps actually closed: non-Hispanic Black youth were 51% more likely than white youth to report cannabis use in 2013, but by 2025 that gap had reversed, with Black youth reporting slightly lower use than white peers. Still, three groups didn't see the same catch-up. American Indian and Alaska Native youth, LGBTQ+ youth, and youth experiencing poverty were roughly three times more likely to use cannabis than their white, straight and non-impoverished peers throughout the entire 12-year span the study covers.
For LGBTQ+ teens specifically, the researchers found a more complicated pattern: the gap narrowed for a period before widening again in more recent survey years. The study's authors argue that closing the remaining gaps will take more than general prevention messaging — pointing instead to efforts that directly target stigma and discrimination facing LGBTQ+ youth as a more effective path to equity.