Just a few years ago, smoking weed required some tiptoeing around, the arranging of an illicit rendezvous with a dealer, and the tacit acceptance of the fact that you might end up with some highly disappointing herb.
Although in many parts of the country (and world) marijuana consumption still requires some discretion due to legal restrictions, these days engaging with cannabis looks very different.
Today, there are approximately 55 million recreational marijuana users in the U.S. — and the majority of them are millennials. Negative attitudes around marijuana are rapidly decreasing in many places, even as they stubbornly endure in others.
Basically, we’re living in a weird time right now. On one hand, companies are increasingly profiting off of absurd (and arguably unnecessary) cannabis-centered marketing tactics — see Carl’s Jr.’s new CBD-infused burger — and on the other, archaic and discriminatory legal practices (that criminalize some while letting off others) persist in places where cannabis is perceived as a threat to ‘civil society.’
Regardless of legality, people across the country are smoking quite a bit of weed and using other cannabis derivatives — both psychoactive and not — for everything from pain management to increased concentration to plain old fun. And this growing demand has created more opportunities for people wanting to get a slice of the $80 billion cannabis industry. And this progress has also allowed women and women of color entrepreneurs to enter the space.
Ahead, we chatted with ten anonymous individuals across the U.S. to get some details on how much money they set aside for cannabis products each month. We take a look at the legal status of marijuana in each of these states, as well as what types of weed products people are using, what they use them for, and how they feel about current shifting attitudes toward the cannabis plant.
Age: 20
Location: Florida
Annual income: $6,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $20
Legal status: Legal for medical use, illegal for recreational use
Reason for use: Pain management, mental health
Types of products: Flower, pens, cartridges
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
"The stigmas can be harmful. They have led me to not be able to get jobs that require drug tests when I use marijuana for anxiety and to sleep.”
Age: 28
Location: New York
Annual income: $78,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $10
Reason for use: Pain management
Types of products: Flower, CBD
Legal status: Legal for medical use, illegal for recreational use, partially decriminalized
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“I think it’s stupid that a naturally occurring plant that has been used medicinally by so many civilizations throughout history is still stigmatized while alcohol, which has no redeeming value whatsoever, is glorified.”
Age: 27
Location: California
Annual income: $45,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $65
Legal status: Fully legal
Reason for use: Mental health, pain management
Types of products: Flower, edibles
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“Weed should be prized more for its ability to destress and relieve pain. It’s a comment on our society that we stigmatize things that help us relax and detach coming home from work. I feel lucky to be in a state that allows it, because it helps with my anxiety and chronic pain and I just have to pop into the store whenever I need some. It’s cheaper than most drugs and not full of chemicals. It should be less taboo to find alternatives to Western medicine, so that the U.S. can start to relax and find more happiness within itself. If we were not flipping out over all this small stuff, we could focus on solving problems that actually affect all of us.”
Age: 25
Location: Illinois
Annual income: $54,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $30
Legal status: Legal for medical use, illegal for recreational use, partially decriminalized
Reason for use: Pain management, recreation
Types of products: Flower, edibles, cannabis oil
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“It’s surprising that marijuana is more regulated than alcohol, given the number of deaths alcohol causes each year. As my generation and the one behind it come of voting age, I think we’ll see marijuana become more and more decriminalized. Thirty years ago marijuana had the reputation that hard drugs like cocaine does now. But the recent research around marijuana and its benefits is hard to ignore. Over time, as more of this research is published, I think it’ll become less stigmatized.”
Age: 26
Location: Georgia
Annual income: $54,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $250
Legal status: Illegal for medicinal and recreational use
Reason for use: Pain management, mental health
Types of products: Flower, rolling papers, and filters
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“Cannabis is widely misunderstood and given a bad rep. Medicinally, it does wonders for my migraines and PMS. Other times it helps with my work anxiety, stress, and sleep.”
Age: 23
Location: Washington
Annual income: $128,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $40
Legal status: Fully legal
Reason for use: Recreation, pain management
Types of products: Flower, concentrates, and vape cartridges
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“Stigmas are pretty much nonexistent here in Seattle, which is good, but it’s ridiculous that it exists elsewhere. It prevents sane legalization policies and people from understanding how to use in moderation and avoid abuse."
Age: 24
Location: Oregon
Annual income: $30,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $80
Legal status: Fully legal
Reason for use: Mental health
Types of products: CBD, edibles, and pre-rolls
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“Honestly, I think the stigma is really silly.”
Age: 22
Location: California
Annual income: $60,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $60
Legal status: Fully legal
Reason for use: Pain management, health, recreation
Types of products: Flower, cartridges, tools, accessories
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“I don’t smoke or consume marijuana every single day, but I think the stigma around it is ridiculous. Especially when it results in racial bias in the criminal justice system, which leads to long prison sentences for minor nonviolent crimes such as possession.
“I am aware that we don’t know everything there is to know about marijuana consumption, much like doctors and tobacco use in the 20th century, but the benefits of smoking weed — which, for me, include entertainment, anxiety relief, and occasional insomnia relief — outweigh the potential risks. This is a decision I make for myself.”
Age: 30
Location: Connecticut
Annual income: $260,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $125
Legal status: Legal for medical use, partially decriminalized
Reason for use: Mental health
Types of products: Cannabis oil, vape pen
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“Only close friends and family know that I use marijuana, but they are all understanding and supportive. I feel that there is far more acceptance now than there used to be.”
Age: 23
Location: Colorado
Annual income: $36,000
Monthly Weed Budget: $60
Legal status: Fully legal
Reason for use: Recreation
Types of products: Flower, joints, edibles, wax
How do you feel about current attitudes or stigmas around marijuana?
“I’m originally from a different state, and every time I go visit, I find comments made about ‘all the weed I must smoke’ extremely annoying. I smoked just as much lesser quality, illegally purchased weed in that state. I think this stigma will wear itself out, but it’s definitely tiresome. I’m a hard-working, dean’s list college graduate and published writer with two jobs. I’m not a burnout stoner wearing tie-dye all day eating Cheetos on my couch.”
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Source: Refinery29 – Ludmila Leiva