We are currently at a point in time where the support of the legalization of marijuana in the United States is at an all-time-high. Over the course of multiple decades, Americans, both young and old, are showing more tolerance of the use of marijuana, both recreationally and medically. Support for legalization rose from 12 percent in 1969 to 31 percent in 2000 to 64 percent in 2017. With this ongoing support and tolerance, the number of states that have taken up legislation to allow residents to use the substance has also grown. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia currently have passed laws broadly legalizing marijuana in some form.
In the 1980s, marijuana was grouped in with a kind of “unholy trinity” with cocaine and heroin in article discussions about drug dealers, drug smuggling and the like. However, during the 1990s, articles discussing marijuana in criminal terms became less common and the number of articles examining the medical uses of marijuana slowly increased. By the late 1990s, marijuana lost its association with other Schedule I drugs and was rarely talked about in the context of drug trafficking and drug abuse. Steadily, the stereotype about the typical marijuana user shifted from the stoner wanting to get high for fun to the aging boomer seeking pain relief. And now that this public support is consistent across U.S. regions, legalization could spread to new areas in the future.
The specific question I hope to tackle in my essay is: Why are Americans becoming more tolerant of marijuana use? I will focus on the actual medical uses of marijuana and how this accounts for America’s support, the shift in the way the drug is marketed and sold (the marijuana industry used to operate underground, but now storefronts are arising on main streets in cities and towns across the country), differences in media portrayal of marijuana from before versus now, how people thought the criminal justice system was too harsh and the laws imposed on marijuana usage were unfair (related to the late 1980s “war on drugs” and sentencing reform laws), and how Americans’ views on marijuana is similar to that of their views on same-sex marriage over the past couple of decades.
I love that you used statistics to back up your factual evidence on how the support for marijuana has increased over the years. Marijuana has had a bad rep for many decades and is often known as the gateway drug to more abusive drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Marijuana is so much more than a drug but can be used medically to help people with many illnesses. I think your essay is going to be so good with this topic because I am curious too as to why we have become tolerant of marijuana.