More on America’s love of marijuana
Time Magazine has more on America’s love affair with pot.
Why the high numbers? Jim Anthony, chair of the department of epidemiology at Michigan State University and an author of the study, says U.S. drug habits have to do, in part, with the country’s affluence — many Americans can afford to spend their income on recreational drugs. Another factor may be an increasing awareness that marijuana may be less toxic than other drugs, such as tobacco or alcohol. (However, the study also found that the U.S. is among the leading countries in the percentage of respondents who have tried tobacco and alcohol). As for the popularity of cocaine, the reason may simply be the close proximity of South America, the world’s only coca plant producer. And finally, Anthony notes, it’s a matter of culture: the U.S. is home to a huge baby boomer population that came of age when experimenting with drugs was a part of the social fabric. “It became a more mass-population phenomenon during a period when there were a large number of young people who were in the process of creating a culture of their own,” Anthony says.
