Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 4 February 2020
Why do so many Americans now support legalizing marijuana?

By Amy Adamczyk ity of New York Times sto-
Associated Press ries about marijuana were
American views on mari- about drug trafficking and
juana have shifted incred- abuse or other Schedule
ibly rapidly. Thirty years I drugs. At that time, The
ago, marijuana legalization New York Times was more
seemed like a lost cause. likely to lump marijuana to-
In 1988, only 24 percent of gether in a kind of unholy
Americans supported le- trinity with cocaine and
galization. heroin in discussions about
But steadily, the nation drug smuggling, drug deal-
began to liberalize. By ers and the like.
2018, 66 percent of U.S. During the 1990s, stories
residents offered their ap- discussing marijuana in
proval, transforming mari- criminal terms became less
juana legalization from a prevalent. Meanwhile, the
libertarian fantasy into a number of articles discuss-
mainstream cause. Many ing the medical uses of
state laws have changed marijuana slowly increased.
as well. Over the last quar- By the late 1990s, marijua-
ter-century, 10 states have na was rarely discussed in
legalized recreational mari- the context of drug traffick-
juana, while 22 states have In this Dec. 14, 2010 file photo, a marijuana plant is seen growing at Med Grow Cannabis College ing and drug abuse. And
legalized medical marijua- in Southfield, Mich. marijuana had lost its as-
na. Associated Press sociation with other Sched-
So why has public opinion ule I drugs like cocaine
changed dramatically in been no different in states people disaffiliating with began to increase shortly and heroin in the New York
favor of legalization? In a that legalized marijuana religion. The proportion of after the news media be- Times. Gradually, the ste-
study published this Febru- than in others. people who do not iden- gan to frame marijuana as reotypical persona of the
ary, we examined a range Likewise, the pace of tify with a religion has in- a medical issue. marijuana user shifted from
of possible reasons, finding change has been similar creased some, by about 7 We took The New York the stoned slacker want-
that the media likely had across political parties, re- percent between 2007 and Times as a case study, look- ing to get high to the aging
the greatest influence. ligions, educational levels, 2014. People who do not ing at the number of pub- boomer seeking pain relief.
It’s not about use, geogra- racial and ethnic groups have a religion tend to be lished articles from 1983 Of course, many Ameri-
phy or demographics and gender. As politically more liberal than others. to 2015 about marijuana. cans do not read The New
Our study ruled out a few polarized as the country However, this factor ac- Just before the number York Times. But analysis of
obvious possibilities. may seem, when it comes counts for only a small pro- of Americans supporting newspapers of record, like
For one, it’s not about mari- to marijuana, Americans portion of the change. legalization began to in- this one, provide insight
juana use. Yes, marijuana into how the news media
use has increased. Data has changed its framing
from the National Survey on of marijuana, especially
Drug Use and Health show during an era when news-
that, in 2002, about 10 per- papers were still a primary
cent of adults reported us- news source.
ing marijuana the previous Harsh criminal justice sys-
year. By 2015, 13.5 percent tem As Americans became
reported using. But that in- more supportive of mari-
crease is too small to have juana legalization, they
had much of an impact on also increasingly told survey
attitudes. researchers that the crimi-
And it’s not about older, nal justice system was too
more conservative Ameri- harsh.
cans being replaced by In the late 1980s, the “war
younger generations who on drugs” and sentenc-
are more familiar with mari- ing reform laws put a large
juana. Both younger and number of young men, of-
older people developed ten black and Latino, be-
more liberal views about hind bars for lengthy peri-
the legalization of marijua- ods of time. As Americans
na at a similar pace over started to feel the full social
the last 30 years. In this way, and economic effects of
changes in attitudes about tough-on-crime initiatives,
marijuana legalization mir- In this Oct. 2, 2018, file photo, a clerk reaches for a container of marijuana buds for a customer at they reconsidered the
Utopia Gardens, a medical marijuana dispensary in Detroit.
ror recent increases in sup- Associated Press problems with criminalizing
port for LGBTQ individuals. marijuana.
We looked to see if people Because support for the le-
who lived in states where it have been changing their Media medical framing crease, we found a sharp galization of marijuana and
was illegal, but resided next attitudes together, as a na- So what’s going on? What increase in the proportion concerns about the harsh-
to ones where it became tion. has likely made the biggest of articles about marijuana ness of the criminal justice
legal, were more likely to We did find that a small difference is how the me- that discussed its medical system changed at about
have changed their views. part of the increase in sup- dia has portrayed marijua- uses. the same time, it’s difficult
But the rate of change has port was related to more na. Support for legalization In the 1980s, the vast major- to know what came first.q