The GREEN Mountain State

(this post was written by Kyle on June 9, 2009, and it concerns & )

From the Rutland Herald’s VT has highest rate of pot smokers:

Vermont ranked highest nationwide for marijuana use in a new survey released Thursday by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration… While Vermont doesn’t have the highest level of drug use…the Green Mountain State was cited in the report for having the highest incidence rate of marijuana use among people aged 12 and older….While the national average for marijuana use was 1.6 percent in 2006 and 2007, use of the drug in Vermont was 2.5 percent during the same time frame.

How do those numbers work out? The 2008 population estimate for Vermont (yes, I realize the study is for 2006 and 2007, but this is what I could find) is 621,270, with 15.9% of that number being younger than 18 and older than 5. Let’s cut that in half and guesstimate that 92% of Vermont’s population is 12 and older (fitting the study above). So we’re talking a total number of 571,568.

According to this survey then, there are 14,289 pot smokers in Vermont.

That seems about right.