Not Your Grandmother ’s Joint: Here’s How Marijuana Use is Changing

Not Your Grandmother’s Joint: Here’s How Marijuana Use is Changing It’s not hard to see how some parts of American culture are light years ahead of where they were just a few decades ago. While our grandparents couldn’t text, call, or email one another, today there are dozens of social media apps that find almost infinite ways to connect you to your friends and paramours. Drugs have changed too. We tend to think about all kinds of drugs, including marijuana, as staying essentially the same over time. But the last few decades have changed the face of marijuana use in the United States in more ways than one. Most significantly, a study recently published in the August edition of the Journal of Drug Issues showed that across the board more people are using marijuana at levels unheard of in previous generations. Specifically, while the study found that the overall market for marijuana has increased from 2002 to 2013, the group of regular users who reported consuming marijuana on a daily basis has skyrocketed from almost one in ten to one in three users. Moving beyond initial stereotypes informed by misinformation and hysteria, the extent and prevalence of its use means that marijuana can no longer be dismissed. The shift in the marketplace for marijuana from transactions that take place primarily in social contexts to more professional exchanges in medical marijuana clinics or recreational use shops is another interesting development over the last ten years. Instead of us...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Richard Taite Source Type: blogs