A recently released poll looking at how American workers relax at the end of the day is being trumpeted as good news among cannabis proponents. I am not sure it’s good news for anyone. The poll shows growing numbers of Americans opting for THC beverages instead of booze.
Why my reticence? Because needing chemicals to relax doesn’t seem like a good scenario. Any particular chemicals aside, shouldn’t we be able to relax and unwind without ingesting things that alter brain function? The fact that this is even a topic of discussion says a lot about the state of modern culture.
More About the Poll
The poll was conducted by Drug Rehab USA. Pollsters gathered responses from 1,000 employed adults across a number of age groups. Here is what the numbers reveal:
- 66% report having tried alcohol alternatives within the last six months.
- 24% report having fully or partially replaced alcohol with non-alcoholic or cannabis drinks.
- 30% of millennials and Gen Zers have replaced alcohol with THC beverages.
- 45% still drink alcohol, while 24% use nicotine.
It is not surprising that millennials and Gen Zers are the most likely to prefer THC beverages over their other choices. They are the most vocal age groups supporting recreational cannabis use. Conversely, I would not be surprised to learn that the majority of Gen Xers and baby boomers who require substances to help them relax are more likely to use alcohol and nicotine.
Medical Consumption Is Different
Before moving on to what truly concerns me, it must be noted that medical cannabis is a different thing altogether. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that medical cannabis can be effectively leveraged to treat chronic pain, PTSD, cancer pain, chronic nausea, and certain seizure disorders. When used as a prescription medicine, cannabis is as valid as any other drug.
At the Beehive Farmacy locations in Salt Lake City and Brigham City, Utah, the majority of patients coming in to purchase cannabis medicines are chronic pain and PTSD sufferers. In the absence of medical cannabis, many of them would be using potent prescription medications with some pretty undesirable side effects. If it were me, I would prefer medical cannabis over prescription opioids.
My concern is not about medical cannabis and its validity as a prescription medication. It is the recreational market that concerns me. Using marijuana recreationally is no different from using recreational opioids – at least in principle. Maybe the physical outcomes are different, but the reasoning behind both substances is the same.
Why the Need to Chemically Alter?
Recreational cannabis brings up a question people have been asking about more dangerous drugs for a long time: why the need to alter one’s consciousness? For the record, I am not in favor of drinking alcohol as a means of relaxing either.
I get the fact that people have been using mind altering substances since the beginning of time. It’s human nature. But my concern is that we are celebrating such things. Not only that, but we are also normalizing the practice of altering one’s consciousness under the pretense that doing so is harmless.
We Learn Our Lessons the Hard Way
My big concern with marijuana is that we tend to learn our lessons the hard way. It took decades for us to figure out that smoking tobacco was a bad idea. It took decades to figure out that alcohol and driving don’t mix. Are we headed down the same path with recreational marijuana? If the previously mentioned poll is an indication, I think we are. I’m sure a lot of other people disagree, and that’s fine.
