Within the inexperienced bubble of the hashish world, we regularly overlook that there’s nonetheless a great deal of stigma surrounding hashish use. However in 2024, the Pew Analysis Middle reported that 11% of American adults consider that hashish shouldn’t be legalized for any purpose. So whereas a few of us could also be lucky sufficient to not have anybody in our interior circle who feels negatively about our hashish use, that’s definitely not the case for everybody.
Responding to the adverse stereotypes that encompass hashish use after they come from well being care professionals or authorities officers is one factor. You nearly count on individuals in these positions to take a look at marijuana dismissively. Nevertheless, coping with adverse attitudes and misconceptions turns into a lot more durable after they come from individuals near you.
Right here, we’ve rounded up 4 of the most typical marijuana myths we hear time and time once more, and supplied you with details and responses that will help you push again in opposition to them in actual time. So subsequent time somebody needs to name you a lazy stoner for taking that gummy earlier than mattress or hints that your pre-roll will result in a lifetime of arduous drug habit, you’ll be a bit extra ready.
Hashish Makes You Lazy and Unproductive
The lazy stoner stereotype is kind of presumably probably the most pervasive hashish stereotype that exists. Marijuana people who smoke have been portrayed as uninspired and unmotivated in popular culture for therefore lengthy— assume The Dude in The Large Lebowski or Spicoli in Quick Occasions at Ridgemont Excessive— that it’s arduous in charge of us for assuming that anybody who engages in a smoke sesh is at the very least a partial burnout.
Pushback in opposition to this stereotype can take one in all three kinds.
First, you possibly can level to the large variety of profitable individuals who have overtly mentioned their hashish use. Dozens of extremely profitable and well-respected individuals—together with former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Invoice Clinton; celebrities like Willie Nelson, Jay-Z, and Madonna; scientists like Carl Sagan; authors like Maya Angelou and Stephen King; and artists like Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso—have smoked marijuana. You’d be hard-pressed to argue that world leaders and Pulitzer Prize nominees are “lazy and unproductive” because of their hashish use.
Moreover, you possibly can level to the best way hashish truly helps many individuals handle circumstances, like continual ache, anxiousness, and melancholy, that in any other case maintain them from being motivated and productive. Anybody who’s struggled with their psychological or bodily well being can inform you that, regardless of their greatest intentions, these types of circumstances can forestall you from doing even probably the most primary duties. However with research displaying that hashish can be utilized to handle melancholy, anxiousness, and different psychological sicknesses along with bodily ones, having some marijuana may truly be the factor that enables some people to be productive and reside balanced lives.
Lastly, we’d be remiss to not point out that the origins of the Battle on Medication are rooted in systemic oppression and racism supposed to cease the productiveness and development of marginalized communities. These are ideally not values that your folks wish to espouse as we speak, and enlightening them about its origins helps them be extra knowledgeable and have a neater time letting the stigma go. We extremely suggest studying our detailed breakdown of this complicated matter right here: The Battle on Medication.
Hashish Is a Gateway Drug
Many people who find themselves in opposition to the legalization of hashish for any purpose, medical or leisure, cite their fears that hashish is a gateway drug as the rationale behind their stance. They fear that smoking marijuana, or normalizing smoking marijuana, will result in experimentation with more durable medicine.
Whereas the jury continues to be out on whether or not hashish truly does result in elevated arduous drug utilization (some research have discovered hyperlinks between hashish use and heroin or methamphetamine use), many consultants are actually agreeing that the 2 aren’t related in any significant means. Not too long ago, the CDC revealed a 2024 report that finds “most people who use cannabis do not go on to use other, ‘harder’ drugs.”
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What many consultants now consider is that the hyperlink between hashish and issues like cocaine is one in all correlation, not causation. That means that persons are not experimenting with more durable medicine as a result of they smoke hashish, however that different social, political, or financial elements affect people to have interaction in each hashish and different drug use.
Girls Don’t Smoke Hashish
The concept that hashish is a “man’s drug” and that ladies who use it are unladylike, promiscuous, or one way or the other in any other case missing in morals or character is an previous one. We might blame it on society’s double requirements for girls or the best way stoner films nearly all the time characteristic all-male casts, however wherever the concept comes from, it’s nonetheless prevalent in lots of circles to at the present time. Traditionally, males have had extra hashish use prevalence in research, however that information itself is topic to investigator and analysis bias in an period that additionally used to favor recruiting wholesome, white, male topics generally throughout life sciences analysis, together with on hashish.
In actuality, the notion that gender has something to do with who can, or ought to, use hashish is fairly dated. Whereas it’s subsequent to not possible to collect actual gender breakdowns in relation to hashish consumption, there’s proof displaying that Gen Z girls are the fastest-growing group of hashish shoppers. One other research finds that whereas extra males than girls self-report utilizing hashish in social settings, extra girls self-report utilizing hashish for medicinal functions.
On the finish of the day, there aren’t any gender necessities for marijuana use. There’s not even sturdy information displaying that it impacts women and men in another way. So, when individuals attempt to use this misogynistic reasoning in opposition to you, merely remind them that occasions have modified and that individuals of all genders and gender expressions are actually handled equally, even in relation to their substance use!
READ: Is Hashish A Gateway Drug That Promotes Drug Abuse?
Hashish Is for Younger Partiers
There’s usually this concept surrounding hashish that it’s just for youth or twenty-somethings who’re large into partying. Possibly this stems from the misperception that marijuana has no place in a wholesome, goal-focused life. Or perhaps it has to do with the truth that younger persons are extra more likely to flout the legislation, though more and more much less so, or non-violently. Or perhaps it’s associated to the truth that younger individuals are usually extra liberal politically and extra accepting of a variety of life.
However wherever this concept comes from, it’s mistaken.
One research completed by the College of Michigan discovered that 12% of adults aged 50 and older had used hashish at the very least as soon as a month over the past yr. There are a variety of causes these older adults are utilizing hashish, starting from leisure and pleasure to assist with sleep and temper, and to deal with pains and aches like arthritis, soreness, stiffness, and extra.
Whereas that quantity continues to be smaller than the 42% of 19 to 30-year-olds who used hashish throughout the final yr, and 29% of 30 to 50-year-olds who used it within the earlier yr, the hole will not be practically as extensive as individuals might lead you to consider.
Because the stigma round hashish dries up, adults of all ages and gender identities are extra doubtless to make use of it with some regularity, and to reside productive, wholesome lives whereas they’re at it.
