Federal data indicate that pregnant women are more likely to use marijuana than alcohol. According to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 102,000 pregnant women between the ages of 15–44 used marijuana in the past month compared to 95,000 who drank alcohol in the past month.
What’s more, the number of pregnant women who used marijuana increased by 20% from 85,000 in 2023 to 102,000 in 2024, as the number of pregnant women who drank alcohol decreased from 161,000 to 95,000. Additionally, the number of pregnant women who binge drank alcohol––defined as drinking 4 or more drinks on the same occasion at least once in the past month––declined from 91,000 in 2023 to 24,000 in 2024. Of course, rather than using one or the other, pregnant women should not use any intoxicating substance that is not prescribed by a doctor.
While 5.0% of pregnant women between the ages of 15–44 used marijuana in the past month, this doubled to 9.8% among those between the ages of 18–25. Pregnant Black women were nearly twice as likely as pregnant white women to use marijuana, at 9.0% and 4.7%, respectively.
These worrying trends are being driven by the legalization and commercialization of marijuana, whereby marijuana use is normalized and its harms are downplayed by profit-driven entities. For example, a 2025 study in JAMA Network Open found that only 44% of California marijuana dispensary workers recommended without any prompting that customers––who were mystery shoppers posing as pregnant women––speak with their doctor about marijuana use.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which administers the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, separately warned that “marijuana use during pregnancy can be harmful to a baby’s health and cause many serious problems, including stillbirth, preterm birth, and growth and development issues.”
In 2019, then-Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams issued an advisory about the increase in marijuana use among pregnant women, pointing to a range of associated harms and the rise in marijuana potency. The advisory noted, “alarmingly, many retail dispensaries recommend marijuana to pregnant women for morning sickness.”