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Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events
11 charts that show ma*****na has truly gone mainstream
By Christopher Ingraham
April 19, 2017
Different strains of ma*****na flower on display at the Sparc dispensary in San Francisco, California. (Sonya Yruel/Drug Policy Alliance)
Many ma*****na users hide their stash in their closets. Most people who use ma*****na are parents. There are almost as many ma*****na users as there are cigarette smokers in the U.S.
Those facts and many more are among the conclusions of new survey from Yahoo News and Marist College, which illustrates how pot has become a part of everyday life for millions of Americans. Here are 11 charts that explain how and why.
1. Nearly 55 million adults currently use ma*****na
More than half of American adults have tried ma*****na at least once in their lives, according to the survey. Nearly 55 million of them, or 22 percent, currently use it — the survey defines “current use” as having used ma*****na at least once or twice in the past year. Close to 35 million are what the survey calls “regular users,” or people who use ma*****na at least once or twice a month.
Those numbers are larger than what we see in some other surveys. A Gallup poll released last year found that more than 33 million adults identified as “current” ma*****na users, although it didn't specify a time frame the way this survey did. The latest federal survey on drug use found about 33 million adults used ma*****na in the past year, considerably lower than the Marist poll's 55 million figure.
But those federal numbers are from 2015, while the Marist poll was conducted last month. Considering four more states have legalized ma*****na since the federal survey was done, attitudes on use may have changed enough that more are comfortable admitting their use to a survey.
Survey mode is another potential factor: The Marist poll was done via phone, while the federal survey involved interviewers speaking with people in their homes. Considering ma*****na remains fully illegal at the federal level, people may simply be more comfortable admitting their use to a voice at the end of a phone line than a representative of the federal government.
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Regardless, 55 million people is a staggering number. It would mean that there are nearly as many ma*****na users as there are cigarette smokers (59 million).
How ma*****na legalization in Washington, Colorado and Oregon is working out so far
What we can learn about legal ma*****na from Washington, Colorado and Oregon. (Daron Taylor, Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post)
2. Support for recreational ma*****na may not be as robust as it seems
Public opinion surveys consistently show that support for ma*****na legalization hovers around 60 percent. But most of those surveys don't ask respondents what, exactly, legal ma*****na means to them — they just ask whether ma*****na should be legal or not.
The Marist survey asked about medical and recreational ma*****na separately. It found that about 83 percent of Americans say they support medical ma*****na, in line with what other national surveys have shown. But respondents were closely divided on the question of “legalizing the use of ma*****na for recreational use” — 49 percent support it, 47 percent oppose.
That lines up with a detailed breakdown of the legalization issue in a survey by the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center last year, where 61 percent said they supported legalization, but 24 percent of those supporters clarified that they only supported medical use.
3. People who have tried ma*****na are much more approving of it than those who haven't
Prior ma*****na use is one of the biggest predictors of support for recreational ma*****na legalization. Fully 70 percent of Americans who have tried ma*****na at least once support legalizing recreational w**d. Only 26 percent of those who haven't tried it say the same.
In short, people who have experience using ma*****na generally think it should be legal. This has potentially significant implications for the national legalization debate: As ma*****na becomes legal in more states, more people will try it. This could lead to greater support for legalization, even more states legalizing, more people trying it, and so on.
4. Most Americans think smoking w**d is 'socially acceptable'
Regardless of whether they support legalization or use it themselves, 56 percent of Americans say that using ma*****na is “socially acceptable,” compared to 42 percent who say it isn't. Again, there's a big split here between people who've tried it (74 percent say it's acceptable) and people who haven't (37 percent).
Majorities also said it would make no difference to them if they learned that their doctor, clergyman, favorite athlete, favorite celebrity or children's schoolteacher used ma*****na in their personal life. Americans do, however, disapprove of parents smoking pot in front of their kids: 79 percent say they would have less respect for such a person.
5. Americans say w**d is less risky than to***co, alcohol or painkillers
By a margin of 72 percent to 20 percent, Americans say that regular alcohol use is more of a health risk than regular ma*****na use. The margins for to***co (76 to 18) and prescription painkillers (67 to 20) are similar.
But the public is split on whether pot is a risk in and of itself: 51 percent say using ma*****na is a health risk, while 44 percent say it is not. Like any drug, there are indeed serious risks associated with ma*****na use: addiction, long-term health problems, driving impairment, you name it. While it's true that the risks associated with ma*****na are generally lesser than the risks of using alcohol or other drugs, that doesn't mean that it's “safe,” full-stop.
6. Ma*****na's legal status isn't a huge barrier to use
Asked why they don't use pot, 27 percent of ma*****na abstainers cited its illegality. But the rest pointed to a host of other reasons: 26 percent said they simply don't like it. 16 percent said they don't use because it's not healthy. Others said that it would interfere with work or school or that they simply had no desire to use it.
These numbers are mirrored in another question: Asked whether they would use ma*****na if the federal government legalized it nationally, only 28 percent said they'd be likely to do so. The rest said the legal change wouldn't make much of a difference in their behavior.
This points to a simple reality: Ma*****na is already the most ubiquitous illicit drug in the country, rivaling legal drugs like to***co in popularity. For most people who want to use it, getting hold of some pot is simply a matter of trip to the darkweb, or Craigslist, or a call to a friend-of-a-friend.
7. Most ma*****na users are millennials
Fully 52 percent of the country's 55 million pot users are millennials. Majorities of ma*****na users are male, make under $50,000 a year and lack a college degree. Only 14 percent of current users are Republicans, and over two-thirds supported Hillary Clinton in the latest presidential election.
Interestingly, millennial ma*****na users appear to be the most conflicted about their use: 25 percent of them say they've felt “guilty” about their ma*****na habit, compared to only 17 percent of non-millennials. That brings us to the next point:
8. Few people want to admit they use ma*****na just for fun
This is one of the survey's most interesting findings: asked why they currently use ma*****na, only 16 percent of smokers said it was “just to have fun.” The rest cited a variety of utilitarian reasons: 37 percent said they used ma*****na to relax; 19 percent said they do it to relieve pain, 10 percent said it helps them be social.
If there's any group in society who do something “just to have fun,” you'd think it would be ma*****na users. The stereotypical image of the “stoner” is the guy blazed out of his mind on his couch, eating Funyuns and giggling at his TV.
But most users don't see themselves this way. For them, ma*****na is less about recreation and more of a product that fulfills a specific need in their life: relaxation, or pain relief, or social lubricant.
9. Where people hide their stash — dressers, fake cans or tins, or locked containers
Roughly four in 10 ma*****na users hide their stash from others. Among those who hide their pot, the dresser (20 percent) is the most popular place of concealment, followed by fake cans, containers or books (11 percent), in safes or locked containers (11 percent) and the closet (8 percent).
Astonishingly, 3 percent of ma*****na users keep their ma*****na in their cars. If you're familiar with the practices of highway drug interdiction you know this is a terrible idea. Drug task forces routinely use minor traffic infractions like busted taillights, failure to turn or speeding as a pretext for searching for contraband in a person's car, often with the aid of a drug-sniffing dog.
Ma*****na users say hide their stashes to keep it away from the prying eyes of children, law enforcement and parents/grandparents, respectively.
10. More than half of ma*****na users are parents
According to Marist, 54 percent of adults who use ma*****na are parents. A majority of those parents — 16 million of them — have children under the age of 18.
Childhood exposure has been a big talking point for opponents of ma*****na legalization. States like Colorado have seen an uptick in the incidence of small children inadvertently eating ma*****na edibles and having to go to the emergency room. In raw number terms, however, these cases are still very rare. Nationwide, poison control centers get calls for pediatric exposure to ma*****na and alcohol at identical rates once you control for the total number of users of both substances.
In the Marist survey, 94 percent of ma*****na-using parents of underage kids say they've never used it in front of their kids or shared it with them.
11. Most people are open about ma*****na use with their family and friends.
Ma*****na users are very open about their habit with their significant others (95 percent of users have told them) and close friends (95 percent again). 72 percent have told their parents about their ma*****na use, and 60 percent have told their kids.
Some families even t**e together — 21 percent of users have either smoked ma*****na in front of their parents or shared a joint with them. Among older users with adult children, 35 percent have smoked with or in front of their kids. Over 60 percent of users have done so with their close friends.
Millennials are the most social pot users — only 25 percent of them typically smoke alone. The rest usually share with significant others and friends. Older pot users are more likely to smoke alone: 40 percent of the over-35 crowd usually use ma*****na by themselves.
* * *
Hungry for more? Check out the survey report for yourself and let me know what strikes you as interesting.
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Christopher Ingraham
Christopher Ingraham writes about all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center. Follow
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