Cannabis is becoming much more popular in many ways. Some assume that it’s just because it is becoming legalized in more areas – with five set to vote on the issue in November. However, the viewpoints Americans have of the drug are becoming more popular, according to studies. The journal Lancet Psychiatry reports that more people believe that cannabis is extremely innocuous.
“Beginning in the 90s with medical marijuana laws, we have seen a large amount of people using marijuana themselves and deciding themselves whether it was harmful to them,” said Roger A. Roffman, a professor emeritus at the University of Washington, School of Social Work. “The idea that marijuana is harmless has been far too widely accepted by people,” he said. “I want to see that pendulum switch back towards accuracy and for us to be more tuned into what people need to make informed decisions.”
This study observed more than a decade’s worth of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, between the years 2002 and 2014, and discovered that less and fewer Americans believe that marijuana is dangerous. The amount of American adults who said they saw smoking cannabis weekly to be a huge risk decreased from 50.4 percent to 33.3 percent, the study says, showing a major change in how people view the drug. This could also hold predictions into the future of cannabis ballots.
“The drum is beating and has been now for a number of years to remove criminal penalties for possession and make it legal to be grown and sold to adults,” Roffman told sources in an interview. “With that movement comes to some claims that marijuana is not dangerous enough to justify there being severe criminal penalties. For many people who hear these claims the message translates to them that ‘there is nothing to worry about.'”
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