An introductory text reads, Marijuana is a psychoactive drug with a complex history and an ever-evolving status. Here, we explore three major categories of change: how people feel about marijuana, the drug’s dynamic legal status, and developments in research.
The first part is titled, Attitudes are changing has a graph that shows the Percentage of people who say marijuana should be made legal. The horizontal axis ranges from 1969 to 2018. The vertical axis ranges from 0 to 70 in increments of 10. The approximate data from the graph are as follows:
Millennial (1981 to 97): (2005, 34), (2009, 37), (2010, 58), (2011, 56), (2013, 68), (2014, 62), (2015, 68), (2016, 70), (2017, 69), (2018, 74).
Gen X (1965-80): (1990, 21), (1991, 20), (1997, 30.5), (1999, 30.5), (2000, 40.5), (2002, 40), (2003, 40.5), (2005, 35), (2010, 40.5), (2011, 49), (2013, 52), (2015, 51), (2018, 64).
Boomer (1946 to 64): Starts from (1973, 43), declines to (1990, 18), then rises steadily to (2018, 54).
Silent (1928 to 45): Starts from (1969, 15), ranges between 9 and 25 percent positive to 2005, then steadily rises to end at (2018, 39).
Text beside reads, support for legalization. The graph to the left shows how Americans’ attitudes about marijuana have changed over the last 5 decades. You can see that attitudes differ by generation, but overall the trend is toward legalizing marijuana.
6 out of 10 Americans support the legalization of marijuana (Hartig and Geiger, 2018, October 8).
The second part is titled laws are changing has a Map that highlights the states where marijuana is legal.
The states in which no broad laws legalizing marijuana are as follows: Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia.
The states in which medical marijuana broadly legalized are as follows: Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Hawaii.
The states in which marijuana legalized for recreational use are as follows: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine (N I D A, 2018).
The third part is titled, and the research is evolving.
Text reads, studies suggest marijuana compounds may be effective for treating chronic pain, muscle spasms, nausea from chemotherapy, and symptoms of multiple sclerosis (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017, January; Whiting et al, 2015; Wilkie, Sakr, and Rizack, 2016).
Clinical trials have paved the way for the first F D A-approved drug created from marijuana. In 2018, the FDA signed off an Epidiolex (cannabidiol) for the treatment of seizures in patients with certain types of epilepsy (U S F D A, 2018).
Collision insurance data reveal that Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington experienced a 6 percent increase in car accidents following the legalization of recreational marijuana. This combined average is in comparison to four nearby states that did not enact such laws (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute, 2018, October 18).
More studies are needed, but there is reason to believe that marijuana may not be good for young brains (Wallis, 2017, December 1). Long-term cannabis use especially that which begins in adolescence, has been associated with lasting cognitive impairments (Meier et al, 2012). What’s more, researchers have discovered a link between teen cannabis use and an increased risk for depression and suicidal tendencies later in life (Gobbi et al, 2019).