Religious Involvement and Marijuana Use for Medical and Recreational Purposes

Authors

• Amy M. Burdette, Florida State University
• Noah S. Webb, Florida State University
• Terrence D. Hill, The University of Arizona
• Stacy Hoskins Haynes, Mississippi State University
• Jason A. Ford, University of Central Florida

ORCID

Haynes: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1408-9291

MSU Affiliation

College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Sociology

Creation Date

2026-06-01

Abstract

In this article, we use data from the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to examine the association between religious involvement and marijuana use for medical and recreational purposes in U.S. adults (N = 41,517). We also consider whether the association between religious involvement and marijuana use varies according to personal health status. Our results show that adults who attend religious services more frequently and hold more salient religious beliefs tend to exhibit lower rates of medical and recreational marijuana use. We also find that these “protective effects” are less pronounced for adults in poor health. Although our findings confirm previous studies of recreational marijuana use, we are the first to examine the association between religious involvement and medical marijuana use. Our moderation analyses suggest that the morality and social control functions of religious involvement may be offset under the conditions of poor health.

Publication Date

4-21-2018

Publication Title

Journal of Drug Issues

Publisher

SAGE Publications

First Page

421

Last Page

434

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

© The Author(s) 2018

Recommended Citation

Burdette, A. M., Webb, N. S., Hill, T. D., Haynes, S. H., & Ford, J. A. (2018). Religious Involvement and Marijuana Use for Medical and Recreational Purposes. Journal of Drug Issues, 48(3), 421-434.