MDH: Minnesota Teen Cannabis Use Keeps Falling, But Perceived Harm Is Rising Again

By MN Cannabis Hub

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) published a brief titled "Cannabis Use Among Youth in Minnesota, 2025," built on the 2025 Minnesota Student Survey. MDH announced the findings in an April 20, 2026 news release. The topline finding is straightforward: fewer Minnesota students report using cannabis than in past survey years, and that decline has been continuous since 2013. The rest of the brief complicates the good news a little, and this article sticks to what MDH actually wrote.

The Minnesota Student Survey goes out to 5th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students every three years and covers a range of health topics, cannabis use among them. Because cannabis use is rare among 5th graders, MDH's brief focuses on 8th, 9th, and 11th graders. Every survey figure below comes from that MDH brief; the legal age limits cited later come from Minnesota statute.

The topline numbers

MDH reports that in 2025, 4.1% of Minnesota students said they had used cannabis in the past 30 days, and 6.3% said they had used it in the past year. Those are the two headline rates the brief leads with, and both describe self-reported use across the surveyed grades combined.

Use has declined in each survey year since 2013

MDH says self-reported cannabis use among Minnesota students has decreased in each survey year since 2013, for both past-30-day use and past-12-month use. The brief presents this as a multi-year trend line, not a single-year blip.

For past-12-month use specifically, MDH says the 2025 decrease is statistically significant in three places: 9th grade (p=0.02), 11th grade (p=0.01), and when all grades are combined (p=0.03). MDH does not report a significance test for 8th grade past-year use in that same passage, and this article is not going to fill that gap with a guess.

The brief includes an important caveat on that broader trend: the brief notes that national and statewide declines are not seen equally among all groups of adolescents. MDH does not name which groups, and neither does this article.

It is also worth being clear about timing. MDH's trend data start in 2013 and show a decline through 2025. That start predates Minnesota's adult-use legalization, which took effect August 1, 2023 under Minn. Stat. ch. 342, by about a decade. MDH does not attribute the trend to legalization, and neither does this article.

Perceived harm is climbing back up

Here is the part of the brief that complicates a simple "kids are using less" headline. MDH reports that in 2025, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students reported an increase in the share who see using cannabis once or twice a week as moderately to greatly harmful. That is a reversal of the trend MDH tracked from 2013 to 2022, when the share of students calling that frequency of use harmful had been dropping in each survey year.

The same reversal shows up from the other direction: the share of students who said they perceive no harm in using cannabis once or twice a week decreased in 2025, again breaking the 2013-2022 pattern. MDH describes overall perceived harm as having "nearly rebounded" to where it was reported more than a decade ago.

Put plainly, in the same year that reported use kept falling, students' sense that cannabis use is risky started climbing back toward where it was over ten years ago.

Students badly overestimate how many of their peers use cannabis

MDH's brief includes a gap between perception and reality that is hard to miss. In 2025, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students reported thinking that over half of their peers, 54%, use cannabis. But 92% of students reported never using cannabis themselves. MDH found the same pattern for vaping specifically: 60% of students thought their peers vaped cannabis, while 94% reported they had never vaped it.

That is a wide gap between what students believe is normal among their classmates and what students actually report doing. MDH's brief presents both figures side by side without further interpretation, and this article does the same.

40.5% of students who use cannabis started at 13 or 14

Among students who reported ever using cannabis, MDH found that 40.5% said they first used it at age 13 or 14. MDH also notes that 8th graders were more likely than 9th or 11th graders to report first use at age 12 or younger, and that more 9th graders reported first use at 12 or younger than 11th graders did.

MDH flags why the starting age matters: cannabis use before roughly age 15 is described in the brief as especially harmful to the developing brain, tied to the period of significant brain development that happens during adolescence. That framing on developmental risk comes directly from the MDH brief, and this article is not extending it into broader medical claims MDH did not make.

How students say they get cannabis

MDH reports that in 2025, the most common source students named was friends: 38.7% of students who reported using cannabis said they got it that way. The brief also states that students in each surveyed grade reported being able to buy cannabis directly from dispensaries, other retail establishments, or the internet. MDH presents that finding in a chart (Figure 5) without accompanying percentages for those individual channels in the report text, and this article is not inventing numbers MDH did not publish. The takeaway from the brief's own framing is narrower and more direct: friends remain the dominant reported source, but they are not the only one, and some students describe purchase channels that are supposed to be restricted to adults 21 and older.

Cannabis and alcohol together

MDH also tracked polysubstance use, specifically using cannabis and alcohol at the same time. The brief says this combination was reported frequently by students in all surveyed grades. Among students who reported cannabis use, most who engaged in this behavior described doing it "sometimes." MDH found that 8th grade students were more likely than other grades to report doing it "usually," while 11th grade students were more likely to report "never" combining the two. MDH's brief notes this combination carries added risk because alcohol and cannabis can interact, making the intoxicating effect more intense.

What operators should take from this

This survey is about students, not about retail compliance data, and MDH's brief does not include any figures on ID checks, refusal rates, or enforcement outcomes. Nothing here should be read as a compliance statistic. The underlying legal rule is set by statute: under Minn. Stat. § 342.27, subd. 4, an employee of a licensed cannabis retail business must verify that a customer is at least 21 years old before starting a sale.

FAQ

What are the headline numbers in MDH's 2025 youth cannabis brief?

MDH reports 4.1% of Minnesota students said they used cannabis in the past 30 days, and 6.3% said they used it in the past year, based on the 2025 Minnesota Student Survey.

Is teen cannabis use going up or down in Minnesota?

Down, according to MDH. The brief says self-reported use has continued to decrease in each survey year since 2013 for both past-30-day and past-12-month use. For past-year use in 2025, the decrease was statistically significant in 9th grade, 11th grade, and across all grades combined.

Did legalization cause the decline in teen use?

MDH's brief does not say that, and this article does not either. MDH's trend data start in 2013, about a decade before Minnesota's adult-use legalization took effect on August 1, 2023 under Minn. Stat. ch. 342. MDH does not attribute the trend to any single cause.

Where do students say they get cannabis?

MDH reports that 38.7% of students who used cannabis said they got it from friends, the most common source named. The brief also says students in each grade reported being able to buy cannabis from dispensaries, other retail establishments, or the internet, though MDH's report text does not break that access route down by percentage.

At what age do most Minnesota students first try cannabis?

Among students who reported using cannabis, MDH found 40.5% said they first used it at age 13 or 14. MDH also notes that 8th graders were more likely than 9th or 11th graders to report first use at age 12 or younger.

Is non-medical cannabis legal for anyone under 21 in Minnesota?

No. Non-medical cannabis sale, possession, and use in Minnesota is restricted to adults 21 and older under Minn. Stat. ch. 342. Minnesota's separate medical cannabis program has its own age and qualifying-condition rules, distinct from the 21+ non-medical rule. See our legal overview for the current statute-based rules.

Sources

• Minnesota Department of Health. Cannabis Use Among Youth in Minnesota, 2025. PDF. Based on the 2025 Minnesota Student Survey, administered to 5th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students.
• Minnesota Department of Health. Youth cannabis use continued to decline in 2025. News release, April 20, 2026.