As cannabis use becomes more popular there are new statistics and facts being created continuously to show the impact marijuana has made. Some of these facts and statistics may be surprising while others you know very well as you may be included the statistic yourself.
Just a few months ago a poll was done by the Marist poll, funded by Yahoo News. This poll showed that more than half of American adults have tried marijuana at least once in their lives. The survey further shows that about 55 million people in the USA currently use marijuana. That's a whole lot of people toking in America. 35 million people use cannabis monthly, 20 million consume it yearly, and up to 78 million have tried it but are not currently using it. If you are wondering who is the majority of smokers look no further than your own parents as 54% of cannabis consumers are parents and they probably have been hiding their stash from you.
20 percent of people hide their weed
If you are wondering where they can be hiding their stash then we've got another statistic that will interest you. According to a survey, 20 percent of people hide their weed in the dresser, which makes it the most common place to hide it. Next up was fake cans, books or other fake containers. Just as popular as that was using locked containers or safes to hide cannabis. One of the last places people hid their stash was the closet, surprisingly. Also, a mere 3 percent of people hid cannabis in their cars. This is not a good place to hide it as it puts you at a much higher risk of getting into bigger trouble with law enforcement after you get pulled over for a minor traffic infraction.
An alarming statistic is that about 700,000 arrests are made annually on cannabis-related charges. What makes this statistic even worse is that more than 80 percent of those are for possession of marijuana, usually in low amounts. So it's not even dangerous drug dealers or the neighborhood dealer getting caught, it's the ordinary Joe getting caught with a nickel bag and paying a high price for it.
Not only is the ordinary Joe that got caught with a nickel bag paying for it, you as a taxpayer is also paying a high price. The American Civil Liberties Union published a report some time ago that it is estimated that a nationwide prohibition costs $3.6 billion in enforcement per year. An analysis from the Tax Foundation found last year that nationwide legalization of marijuana could potentially generate up to $28 billion in tax revenues for state, local, and federal governments. It's baffling that cannabis legalization didn't begin years ago with statistics like these.
hemp can drastically cut down the use of timber
Hemp, marijuana's non-psychoactive sibling, was used for thousands of years for various things like paper and rope. It has been banned to grow in the USA even though a single hemp plant can save 12 trees. Hemp, today, has more than 25,000 product applications such as paper products, hemp concrete, and biodiesel. Switching to hemp can drastically cut down the use of timber and fossil fuels as it is one of the most sustainable choices available.
Another fun fact of cannabis is that the bud you smoke nowadays is not the same bud your hippy parents were smoking back in the '70s. With the invention of hydroponics and other technologies, today's weed is 57-67% more potent than back then. Dispensaries usually carry bud that contains 15-20% THC. The herb from the '70s had a THC content of about 3%. I guess the "good old days" were really not that good.
The Carleton University performed a study that showed that cannabis consumers that smoked 5 joints a week or less had higher IQs than non-smokers. The IQ scores of 70 test subjects were measured when they were at ages 9 to 12. The subjects were tested again at ages 17 to 20 and categorized by levels of marijuana use. Moderation was key as those that smoked moderately scored the highest.
Statistics can easily put things into perspective and help us look at the bigger picture. Every year laws are changing and new studies are being performed on cannabis. Therefore, the statistics we see this year will drastically change in the coming years.
