For the first time ever, more Americans report smoking weed than tobacco. These results were compiled in a new Gallup poll, and while they’re not all that surprising, they mark a significant moment in our culture and represent how far cannabis has gone over the past decade.
The survey was conducted in July and highlights the work that has been done in curbing the consumption of tobacco. The survey asked a variety of questions to participants, including whether or not they consumed edibles (14% say yes), a first in Gallup history!
“Marijuana use (based on self-reports) has increased dramatically over the past half-century. Only 4% said they had ever tried marijuana in 1969, when the question was first asked. That’s now 48%. Seven-percent of Americans said they currently smoke marijuana in 2013, compared with the 16% measured this summer,” says Gallup.
Results show that the substance that Americans consume the most is alcohol, with 45% of them saying that they consumed it over the past week and 67% of them saying they consumed it occasionally.
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“In sum, American adults are significantly more likely to use alcohol than either marijuana or cigarettes. And while alcohol consumption has remained relatively constant over the decades, cigarette use is now less than a fourth of what it was in the 1950s,” says Gallup. “Americans’ regular use of marijuana is modestly higher than cigarettes at this point, but the trend over recent decades in marijuana use is upward.”
Americans have been slowly becoming more honest about their cannabis consumption and more willing to try it out. Over the past decade, Americans started to experiment with the drug as it became legal in a variety of states, resulting in the environment we’re living through today when almost half of the population says that they’ve tried the drug.
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Marijuana is currently one of the few topics that are bipartisan, at least when talking about the American public. While conservatives are less likely to support the legalization of the drug than liberals, all in all, the majority of people are in for some form of legal cannabis.
