Cannabis Column - #41

Jon Gettman is a long time contributor to HIGH TIMES. A former National Director of NORML, Jon has a Ph.D. in public policy and regional economic development and consults with attorneys, advocates, and non-profits on cannabis related research and public policy issues. On October 8, 2002, along with a coalition of organizations, he filed a new petition to have cannabis rescheduled under federal law. This column will track that petition's progress. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

Since 1990 the federal government has conducted an annual survey on the prevalence of drug use and abuse in the United States. Before 1990 the survey was conducted every three years, but by the 1990s the War on Drugs had become such an important and expensive aspect of national governance that even greater attention needed to be devoted to counting the number of drug users in the United States.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is an extensive series of questions about personal characteristics, health issues, social experiences, and the non-medical use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and several other drugs.

During the ten-year period from 1992 to 2001 the survey estimated an average of 18.7 million people used marijuana per year. For the 2002 survey, though, a new procedure was used to encourage more people to complete the lengthy questionnaire. From 2002 onward individuals were paid to complete the survey. This is a well-recognized tool used in the social sciences to improve the quality and reliability of survey data. The more people that complete the survey the more data, and more reliable data, are available for analysis.

Well, this change in the data collection had an unanticipated result. In 2002 the estimate of the number of annual marijuana users in the United States increased by a significant amount. After an average of 18.7 million over the prior ten years the 2002 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse estimated that there were actually 25.9 million annual marijuana users in the U.S.

The latest survey for 2006 further confirms this higher estimate. The 2006 survey, just released in September 2007, estimates 25.4 million annual marijuana users for the US. In fact, for the five-year period from 2002 to 2006 the survey estimate has averaged 25.6 million per year.

Here’s the breakdown of estimates for illegal drug use in the United States with respect to use within the last year (2006): Marijuana (25.4 million); Cocaine (6 million); Stimulants [such as methamphetamine] (3.4 million); Ecstasy-MDMA (2.1 million); Oxycontin (1.3 million); LSD (666,000); Heroin (560,000); and PCP (187,000).

Over 97.8 million Americans have used marijuana at least once in their lifetime, and at least 14.8 million report using marijuana in the last month. Drug abuse researchers take these figures with a grain of salt because other data suggests that drug use is under-reported on surveys such as this. A report by the Office of National Drug Control Policy suggests it is reasonable to inflate estimates such as these by one-third because of under-reporting – they acknowledge that not everyone tells the government the truth about their illegal drug use. A recent study issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides additional data on this trend. Comparing self-reporting of marijuana use within the past month with urine testing of the same subjects indicated that 40% of the individuals who tested positive for marijuana use had declined to accurately report their marijuana use prior to urine testing that revealed a more accurate assessment of prior drug use.

Consequently, we know from these government surveys that there are at least 25 million marijuana users in the United States. It may sound like a lot of people, but the same surveys reveal that this amounts to only 10.3% of the population. The number of people who have used marijuana at least once in their lifetime, though, amounts to about 40% of the population.

However among individuals aged 18-20 the prevalence of marijuana use is much higher. Among those aged 18 to 20, the percentage who have used marijuana monthly increases to 18.6% and the percentage who have used marijuana in the last year increases to 31.6%. Among those aged 21 to 25 the percentage who have used marijuana monthly was 14.8% and the percentage of annual users was 25.7%.

These figures have important political implications. First of all, the legalization of marijuana will require support from large segments of the public who do not use marijuana. Second of all, it is crucial that activists devote considerable time and attention to encouraging marijuana users under the age of 25 to become active and involved in the marijuana legalization movement. The key to success in legalizing marijuana is to utilize the energy, enthusiasm, and talents of marijuana users under the age of 25 to make reasonable and credible appeals to non-marijuana users of all ages to support marijuana’s legalization.

This is a difficult challenge. Many people between the ages of 18 and 25 have difficulty relating to older Americans. Indeed one of the most liberating aspects of turning 18 is to be able to gain greater control over one’s life and enjoy greater freedom for self-expression. Let’s face it – gaining the respect of older Americans is not a big priority for many of those between the ages of 18 and 21. This is a time of self-expression, and indeed, rebellion, for many Americans. This is the time when many Americans seek to celebrate their own values rather than compromise themselves in order to please others.

And this is how it should be. But successful political activism doesn’t require compromising one’s own values in order to gain the respect of others. Instead, it requires having enough faith and confidence in one’s own values to demonstrate enough respect for other points of view to find common ground to form political coalitions. There are plenty of reasons for people who don’t use marijuana to support marijuana’s legalization, and there is plenty of common ground for mutual respect between young marijuana users and older Americans who have either given up marijuana use or never used it themselves.

Numbers are powerful. They settle arguments. These numbers, the ones above that establish the persistence of marijuana use in the United States, settle an important argument. Marijuana is here to stay. Another argument they settle is whether or not current laws control marijuana use – obviously, they don’t. Tens of millions continue to use marijuana, and all the arrests, sanctions, and prejudice of the last thirty years haven’t changed that one bit. Marijuana prohibition is a failure, the numbers prove it, and it’s time for marijuana users to reach out to the rest of the public and build sufficient support for a new approach to regulating marijuana use in the United States. It’s time to try marijuana’s legalization. Look at the numbers. Marijuana use is here to stay. It’s time the country recognized this and learned to live with it.