It is not much of a stretch to say that marijuana is the most popular it has ever been in the United States. Though cannabis remains federally illegal, the Department of Justice began the process of removing cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it will soon no longer be classified as having no medical use. It’s a surprising change in tone for those familiar with America’s history with controlled substances. 45 years ago, Ronald Reagan was calling weed “probably the most dangerous drug in the United States.” Now, 40 states have legalized it for recreational use, and 24, including Massachusetts, have legalized its recreational use. Gen Z college students are increasingly choosing weed over alcohol as their drug of choice. Why? What changed? The answer is an 80 year cultural overhaul.
It is well known now that marijuana has many medicinal benefits, but this is not new data. Americans and Europeans had been making use of marijuana recreationally and medically during the 19th century. This changed in the 20th century during a wave of Mexican immigrants entering the southwestern U.S. to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution. Cannabis was a popular choice for poor immigrants at the time, and America, ever racist, banned the drug due to conspiratorial rumors surrounding its use by those immigrants.
After half a century of increasingly harsh punishments for its use, weed became especially popular among young people as an element of the more free-spirited counterculture movements of the ’60s and ’70s. Even as the anti-government sentiment of the time faded in the ’80s, weed continued to grow more popular due to the utter ineptitude of the government to try to discourage its use. The War on Drugs put a pause on weed’s increasing popularity as the government again cracked down on drug use, but when political winds shifted back to more liberal policy in the ’90s, the rise continued. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize the drug medically again.
What does all of this tell us about weed’s current state? In the ’70s, weed became a symbol of young people rebelling against authority figures, one that stands to this day. It should come as no surprise, then, that educated college students are turning to it once again under a similarly unpopular political climate.
One other contributing factor to weed’s increasing popularity, as mentioned before, is that alcohol and tobacco consumption have been decreasing each year as more research comes out about their many dangers. This happens to be occurring as favorable research continues to come out about weed’s positives. This does not necessarily mean that weed is a better choice, but the lack of meaningful negative information about it compared to mounting evidence against other recreational substances makes it an “easier” choice. The study of marijuana’s use is still in its infancy, so only time will tell if data will discourage its use along with other substances.
The Trump administration has expedited the rescheduling of cannabis to encourage further research into its effects, a major step toward national legalization. The industry, though young, is already worth billions of dollars, but it remains to be seen if this profit incentive will be enough to put cannabis on the map with cigarettes and alcohol.
