US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

Marijuana use has massively increased in the US as states have legalized it.

Users have doubled: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264862/cannabis-consumpt...

Use among users has also increased 20%: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/962353

20% increase in consumption isn’t exactly what I would call massive.

Looking at historic trends the point where pot was first legalized for recreational use isn’t obvious. If anything the long term upward tends started long before legalization which didn’t seem to have significant impact. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s...

I’m surprised it’s not more personally if the numbers are accurate. A lot of pretty casual users in professional jobs were mostly not going to find a friend of a friend to do an illegal transaction with. But they’ll go into a dispensary now and then.

But you really see that reflected in the doubled number of users which is probably the more relevant number.

If I could face consequences for using drugs, I will deny it even after being positive in a test. Of course, once legalized, I'll have no problem saying that I used in once or twice a year. Being it legal, safer and out of the dangerous black market, there will be some new users.

Same happened after alcohol prohibition: more people consumed after the ban was lifted, but consumption was safer. But rarely people that didn't consume during the prohibition went on alcohol binge after the end of the ban. They just drank a couple of beers per week, maybe even a glass of bourbon twice a year, now that they can buy and consume it safely.

Thus the stats you linked doesn't necesarily show a "massive" increase in use, but many people using it sparsely now and many people now admiting to use it that were using previously. In fact, while statista.com shows a 100% increase, the second and more controlled study shows only a ~20% increase that makes more sense (far from massive).

I'd bet alcohol use went way up after prohibition too. Both in number of people consuming, and on how much they consume on average.

I've personally known people with terminal cancer who wouldn't use marijuana to manage pain and nausea because it is federally illegal. They suffered more than they should have. Is lower use always good?

I have had my first legal weed experiences in the past year in New York and even the lowest THC % at the legal weed store is stronger than anything I use to get on the black market when weed was illegal.

Then there are these incredible 10mg THC infused lemonades that are amazing.

On the other hand, the novelty of legal weed only lasted about 4 months for me. Because the store was there and there was this selection I never had access to before I wanted to try different things and was smoking more than I would have normally. At the end of the day though it is all still just weed. It is fun for me but only once a month at most now.

I also don't know a single person that didn't smoke weed because it was illegal and now they do because they can go to the store and purchase it legally.

I think that the polling has doubled for users because people can answer the poll honestly when weed is legal. The idea that weed being illegal is keeping 50% of the potential weed smoking population from smoking is utterly preposterous.

If anything, what is interesting is how many people who would never try weed when it was illegal, will still never try it when it is legal. They may say it is because it is illegal or they don't want to smoke but you can't sell them on 10mg legal lemonaid either.

Sounds like you are just saying it needs more marketing. Small timers are all over social media but big timers can buy segments on news and daytime television and pretend it’s a story when it’s really an ad.

Now that it’s “legal” I wonder if that was what was holding it back before.