Has the cultural attitudes towards weed changed these days compared to 10-20 years ago?

37 comments

1. it’s much more accepted these days

2. Yes it’s generally more accepted. If you just look at maps of where weed is legal to varying degrees it’s much more legal now than it was 20 years ago

3. I’m a Zoomer. There’s no stigma at all in my social circles.

   I have to say, vapers piss me off way more than stoners. Stoners don’t blow their smoke in people’s faces and say “bro you why you mad bro it’s just water vapor bro.” I wish vaping was stigmatized like smoking cigarettes is.

4. Dudes who used it 10-20 years ago have more (political) say, they are okay with it if the next gen uses it

5. Yes it’s much more acceptable these days.

6. Weed is a lot more accepted nowadays and the frontier of the debate around which drugs are taboo or not has shifted more to psychedelics imo (at least in states where weed is already legal)

   edit: example, [FDA gives thumbs down to MDMA for now, demanding further research](https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/1eztlxe/fda_gives_thumbs_down_to_mdma_for_now_demanding/)

7. Some people still think smoking weed is edgy and rebellious (older people who remember when it was much more clandestine tend to be the most like this), but as the slow drip of legalization has marched on, it’s become an incredibly normie thing to do. Two of my bosses (in professional, office-type workplaces) brought up doing it in casual conversation as if it’s a mainstream behavior because it is.

   Tattoos have undergone a similar cultural transformation over the past twenty years, although not quite as dramatic since they were never illegal.

8. Yes. When I was a kid my parents lectured me about how bad it was. Now they have medical cards.

9. More accepted. Most people don’t think anything of it if someone says they smoke. In fact if you ask someone if they smoke and they say cigarettes people look at them weirdly. If they say they smoke weed most probably won’t bat an eye. lol

10. In some regions? 100% It’s less accepted to smoke tobacco here in New England and probably many parts of the country. Even like 34% of US residents who say they are conservative think it should be recreationally legal.

11. It was pretty accepted 10 years ago, 20 not as much.

12. Oh yes, in a big way. I’ve even noticed it within my lifetime, and I’m only 30. It blew my mind that when I was working on getting my *security clearance* for a *government job* on a *navy base* and right there in the paperwork it said I didn’t have to report cannabis misdemeanors older than 12 months.

    I went from hiding it from my parents to openly smoking in the backyard during family gatherings. Legalization, plus more sound and thorough medical research, made a lot of people relax.

13. Yes. Much more accepted. I don’t like marijuana, but I am happy that people now know that nobody gives a shit if you smoke. They used to get all wierd around you if you didn’t partake like you were a cop or something.

14. I think it’s still less normalized in states where smoking weed recreationally is illegal, but less so in a “weed is a gateway drug and soon you’ll be a junkie” way and more in a “yeah that’s still not quite legal here” way

15. My parents were very anti weed. I remember growing up the message was “never do weed!” and I really had to research to figure out why we felt that way when attitudes started shifting.

    I honestly don’t care if you’re using it, even though I don’t use it. If it’s your own home, you’re not operating heavy machinery while high, and you’re otherwise not doing anything that’s a danger to others, then I don’t care. Plus, it’s fewer people in prison from using it, instead of having drug cartels smuggle it in, we can sell it in dispensaries and tax it, and just overall less of a stress on the legal system. Plus, I also think it has medicinal purposes that haven’t been studied because it’s been so stigmatized.

16. Yes. The weed shop is full of people from all walks of life.

17. 20 years ago, if my mom would have found me with a joint she would have ended me.

    10 years ago, if my mom would have found me with a joint she would have been a little disappointed.

    Today, if my mom found me with a joint she would tell me to pass that shit.

    So yeah.

18. In general, yes. I still think it’s bad for your health but more people seem to not care about health consequences of ingesting weed.

19. It depends on your social circle. It’s still dangerous for people with certain medical conditions so like with anyone else who’s smoking anything else, you’re an asshole for smoking but using THC is much less stigmatized so long as you’re not abusing it.

20. I’m 37 and in the Midwest in a state where it’s been legal for at least 5 years. Socially it’s pretty much the same from when I was in HS in the first half of the 00s–no one my age cares. Elected politicians are slower to accept things like this than the general population, or they’re not in a particular hurry to get into something potentially controversial, so it took another decade until the 2nd half of the 10s before the state government legalized it, like they needed to have a certain amount of politician turn-over.

    The people in older generations who were against it are still anti-pot. People my age don’t care, like it’s not really an issue at all. I’d say edibles are discrete and have zero stigma whereas smoking it stinks up the area and smells bad so you wouldn’t go to someone’s house/party and smoke pot at their place, but you could do edibles, if that’s what you wanted to do. I’d say cigarette smoking probably has more of a stigma than pot smoking, although if you go out in public stinking like pot, people will look down on that.

    Seeing actual out in the open pot stores around was “OMG can you believe it?!” for the first few months but now it’s just normal. The people who were strongly against it seem to keep it to themselves once they saw the tax revenue start pouring in.

    I work in an industry where it isn’t allowed/random drug tests so it’s not an issue.

21. It’s definitely neutral, but I personally am going to find it hilarious in 10 years or so when the same people who promoted marijuana over tobacco get caught up in the same type of kerfuffle over secondhand smoke.

22. Here in the buckle of the Bible belt, everyone and their granny has a medical marijuana card. Nobody cares. The doctors don’t care. I hope it’s federally legalized soon.

23. Ppl are super chill about it on both sides of the political spectrum. Still federally illegal but should change any day now…..

24. I live in a state with legal weed and you can kinda just smell it on the street sometimes and nobody cares

25. Idk my son is 14 I was smoking weed at that age he doesn’t do any of that and makes fun of kids who vape or get caught with weed. It’s so strange trying to be angry and discipline a kid who so much better behaved than myself

26. Funny you mention that, because I was just thinking how crazy it is that just a few years ago drug tests for jobs were mandatory. Now I get an employee discount at the dispensary that the owner of my company has invested in.

27. My dad is a retired police officer. When I was a kid I was scared to death I would get caught smoking. He used to give Dare like lectures at home. Now the man buys my mom edibles from the dispensary..

28. I think the most common way I’ve seen it perceived now a days is that it’s smelly and to please keep the smell away from them.

29. 20 years ago i was in elementary school and we had the DARE program. They would basically tell us that weed was just as bad as every other drug, equivalent to even meth. Now it’s legal, so I’m going to go with yes

30. A decade ago, a lot of people would smoke weed in their cars in a parking lot in public. Nowadays they just stand in the parking lot and smoke a joint. Come inside the bar or wherever smelling like it and nobody cares.

31. Here in East Tennessee its all but legal. You can find all its analogs in specialty shops. Among my range of age friends they’re all in favor of it being legal.

32. To sum up the difference, I’m a near 40 dad living in a nice house in a nice neighborhood near the coast and instead of stressing about the bullshit meetings I have to navigate tomorrow (Monday), I’m high.

33. As someone from California, no it hasn’t.

34. So I just started finally watching the show “Suits” on Netflix right now. The first season originally aired in 2011, and has serval episodes with plots that revolve heavily around pot. The attitude is very clearly strongly negative, almost distractingly so. It seems otherwise out of place for a show that largely feels modern.

    But that fits pretty well with what I remember attitudes being just a short time ago, it’s definitely relaxed as more and more states have legalized it.

35. There’s zero taboo about it, even in my family, and it’s fucking bizarre. 20 years ago, I’d have to sneak out and crash at a friend’s place to smoke. Now my conversation mom’s asking what the effects of mushrooms are? There’s dispensaries all over NJ now, and here in Philly, there’s medical shops all over. You can smoke out in the open. Most of my friends now in their 30s don’t drink heavily, but will light up or take edibles.

36. Actually, the attitude toward it hasn’t really changed; what’s different is the access. Ten years ago, it was widely accepted, and the same goes for twenty years ago—everyone was smoking weed back then. The only difference is that you couldn’t just walk into a store to buy it; you had to get it from a friend.

37. Definitely. Just look at the legality of cannabis by state compared to 10-20 years ago. Right now, 23 states have fully legalized cannabis, while most of the rest have decriminalized it and/or legalized medical marijuana. There are only 4 states where weed is fully illegal. Going back 20 years ago, no state allowed for recreational use, and even 10 years ago, fully legal cannabis was the exception and not the norm.

    Cannabis became fully legal in my state (Missouri) in 2022, and we’re a red state. It used to be that hardly any Republicans agreed with weed legalization, but now, that’s not the case. If weed can be legal in a conservative state like Missouri, it shows that the attitudes towards weed are definitely shifting to much more acceptance.

    Now why the federal government cannot seem to legalize it, I have no clue. It’s not a polarizing issue and legalizing it nationwide would make a lot of people happy, not to mention how much tax revenue it would generate.