Nearly one-third of cannabis consumers say they have completely replaced alcohol with cannabis, while almost two-thirds report drinking less as a result of their cannabis use, according to a new survey conducted in the United States.
The poll was conducted as part of Sober October, an annual initiative encouraging people to abstain from alcohol for a month, by medical cannabis telehealth company NuggMD. Over 1000 cannabis consumers were polled between 24 and 26 September 2026.
Researchers found that 31.5% of respondents said they had completely replaced alcohol with cannabis, while another 25.8% reported that cannabis had greatly reduced their alcohol consumption.
A further 8.5% said cannabis had somewhat reduced their drinking, bringing the total proportion of respondents reporting a reduction or complete replacement of alcohol to nearly two-thirds.
The findings suggest that cannabis is increasingly being used as an alternative to alcohol among some consumers, adding to a growing body of research examining the relationship between the two substances.
Only 9.8% of respondents reported no change in their drinking habits, while 4.8% said cannabis had increased their alcohol consumption to some degree. Almost one in five respondents (19.7%) said they did not drink alcohol.
Excluding those who did not drink, approximately 82% of the remaining respondents reported that cannabis had either reduced or completely replaced their alcohol consumption.
The survey was conducted among cannabis consumers living in US states with regulated cannabis markets.
The latest findings are consistent with previous research suggesting that cannabis may reduce alcohol consumption under certain circumstances.
In November 2025, leafie reported on a randomised controlled trial conducted by researchers at Brown University, which found that participants consumed significantly less alcohol after smoking cannabis containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound primarily responsible for cannabis’s intoxicating effects.
The study, published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, involved 157 participants who regularly consumed both cannabis and alcohol.
Researchers found that participants who smoked cannabis containing 3.1% THC consumed 19% less alcohol than those given a placebo, while participants receiving cannabis containing 7.2% THC reduced their alcohol consumption by 27%.
Those receiving the higher THC dose also waited significantly longer before beginning to drink.
The researchers suggested that cannabis could reduce alcohol consumption under certain conditions, although they cautioned that further research was needed to determine whether substituting cannabis for alcohol would result in meaningful reductions in harm.
