An analysis of tweets around New Year's Day shows more social media users are publicly voicing their desire to light up

Lose weight, get organized … tweet about smoking more weed?

By this point in the year, most New Year’s resolutions are already broken. But a new analysis from the Coalition Against Drug Abuse suggests that more social media users are publicly resolving to use more substances – especially marijuana – in 2014.

Resolutions related to marijuana were more 71% more popular in 2014 than 2013, according to Joseph Rearick, who used Twitter's API to analyze roughly 1m tweets across the globe in the days before and after New Year's Day. Among the phrases paired with resolutions-related hashtags used determine drug, drinking and smoking use were "light one up", "whiskey", "vodka" and "bourbon". Rearick was surprised to see an increase of tweets voicing enthusiasm for marijuana. Marijuana was an especially popular topic on New Year's Day because it was the first day of legal recreational sales in Colorado.

“Our interest in this particular aspect of the data stems from its total reversal of our expectations,” Rearick said Monday. “We were shocked to find just how many were actually about smoking, drinking or using marijuana more in the coming year.”

Marijuana is loved by many around the world – we even published a global price guide in December after Uruguay legalized production. In America, legislation has been slower going, but recent moves to legalize the drug have shifted public perception. A Gallup poll published in October showed that 58% of Americans support marijuana legalization – a 10-point surge from the year before. Gallup points specifically to measures to legalize marijuana in Washington state and Colorado as reasons behind more favorable opinions.

Data from the National Institute of Drug abuse shows that marijuana remains the illicit drug of choice in the US, even as one legalization opponent who wrote for the Guardian this week says the drug's popularity is "a symbol that the world has become more accepting of living a mediocre life". All of this can explain a more lax attitude from Twitter users proudly proclaiming their love of weed.

The full chart is below, but here are some other findings: When it comes to legal drugs, 36% of tweeters resolved to quit or lessen the drinking in the new year, while 13% resolved to drink more. And more people resolved to quit smoking cigarettes this year compared to 2013.

In related news, here's how to set your Twitter account to private.