
Weed will soon clobber beer sales, Wall Street says - prostoalex
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/20/beer-sales-are-going-to-fall-because-marijuana-is-getting-so-popular-wall-street-says.html
======
empath75
The chart showing the inverse correlations is one of the most misleading
charts I've ever seen. They put two separate scales on top of each other to
make it look like pot is more popular than alcohol.

~~~
cracell
That's the great thing about statistics! You can manipulate them to support
any point.

~~~
3w4v
That's the great thing about misrepresentation! You can manipulate any
representation to prove any point.

------
cies
> Weed will soon clobber beer sales

So why again what is scheduled as an illegal "flower" in the first place? If
is we do not know the answer then lets look at this question: who benefited
all these years from tax money spend on cracking down on
growing/trading/having/using this plant?

Allow me to answer the last one: I think weed will be more popular the
alcohol, and it will be heavily used as replacement for all kinds for
"medicines".

~~~
jameskegel
> replacement for .. "medicines"

Completely? I'm afraid not. As a compliment to a complete regimen, then of
course. I'm a card holder, but there are times where MJ and derivatives don't
have the same benefits, long-bone pain being one.

A sidenote: I'm laughing at the irony that one could grow a crop of opium
poppies less conspicuously than a crop of MJ.

~~~
rhcom2
Also a card holder and I'm very much looking forward to the movement into the
mainstream so we can get rid of a lot of the hippish pseudoscience and
actually have medical studies on the stuff.

------
saturdaysaint
This jibes with my experience. Having a tasty drink and getting a light buzz
(a beer or two) is still enjoyable/appealing when I'm high, but getting
smashed isn't, least of all getting smashed on the beers mentioned in the
article. And when fewer of your friends are ever looking to drink heavily, the
old norm of "let's all get together and have 3 - 5 drinks" starts to go away.
Add the fact that bars have become completely besides the point for meeting
attractive people (Tinder) and new forms of highly immersive entertainment,
and I'm surprised the trend isn't more dramatic.

~~~
iaw
Do you think Mr. Sessions has been lobbied by the alcohol industry?

~~~
rch
Obviously they all have been, aggressively.

------
ben_jones
From a practical perspective I doubt it. While weed will have higher pricing
you won't see the same quantity of people binging on weed like they do on
liquor. You'll have many places of employment discriminate against it (it can
stay in the blood stream for a month). Many people don't enjoy the sensation
versus alcohol. It doesn't cause the same chemical dependencies, don't
underestimate how much money bars and stores make from "regulars" known to the
rest of us as alcoholics.

Finally and perhaps most important their is a huge logistical cost to being in
the THC industry. Regulations at the local and state levels can take a healthy
business and make it shut its doors in less then a week. Payment portals get
frozen. Limits to growers, shippers, etc. keep pricing very high. I've yet to
meet an un-affluent heavy user who doesn't still buy from a dealer because of
pricing.

P.S. don't forget the religious and cultural push-back against weed. We accept
beer advertising as normal, that won't happen with weed in most places. No
superbowl commercials for Gorilla Glue.

~~~
coralreef
Data shows legal marijuana has hurt beer sales:

[http://time.com/money/4592317/legal-marijuana-beer-
sales/](http://time.com/money/4592317/legal-marijuana-beer-sales/)

~~~
ben_jones
From the very first paragraph of the article you linked:

"Research firm Cowen & Company analyzed the state of the beer industry in
Colorado, Oregon and Washington—states where both recreational weed is legal
and craft beer has become popular".

And:

"MilllerCoors have seen the largest drops. Sales volume of premium brews like
Coors Light and Bud Light dipped by 4.4%, while economy brews—the regular
forms of mainstream beers like Budweiser or Coors—dipped by 2.4%."

Sales of craft beers go up, sales of draft beers go down. I'm not putting all
of that on weed.

I really don't like how all the sources of articles on the impact and results
of weed legalization link to... other weed legalization articles.

P.S. A large amount of this "information" is just normal if well disguised
click-bait. Please, please, please, link me to _hard_ data if you want to
change my mind. I will read every sentence of it!

P.S.S. Also craft beer has EXPLODED in places like Portland and it seems like
a natural outcome that, because craft beer is much more expensive, that people
buy less of it and enjoy it as more of a social delicacy then a weekend event.

------
dxbydt
Honest question - as a non-user who has dabbled in pain-dampening aids, how
effective is it? In particular, there is this great scene in American Beauty
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpsmoAe9pM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpsmoAe9pM)
) where Lester smokes pot while bench-pressing. Is it much better than taking
aspirin ( the A in the ECA stack ) ? My trainer in India used to come drunk to
sessions - he said whiskey dampened all the pain. So he had great arms but a
big belly too! But these days ganja is freely available & you can see the
results everywhere - Instagram is filled with 6-pack models vying for their
chance in Bollywood, & most of them do weed from what I hear.

~~~
dleslie
I find that I feel the pain but don't feel encumbered by it; which works out
well when safety is a concern, like when lifting.

~~~
dxbydt
I'll go out on a limb & say there's different kinds of pain. If you are doing
"cardio with weights" \- ie. you can comfortably bench 100 lb, but you are
doing 200 reps of 30 pound - that's pain A. If you can comfortably bench 100
lb but you try to do 1 rep of 300 lb, that's pain B. You want to feel pain B,
so you won't blow your bicep. But you don't necessarily want to feel pain A,
because that won't do you damage - its just getting in the way of finishing
your workout, so you want to be zoned out. Most people trying to cut & get
defined abs etc. are in the pain A basket, trying to repeatedly do insane
amount of reps with very low weight. For them, cannabis might be a solution.

~~~
rangibaby
I call that that "sore" vs "pain". Being sore (type A) is ok, pain (type B)
never is. From what I've heard about steroids is the help you push through
being sore, which lets you train more.

------
ChuckMcM
I'm surprised they didn't also recommend a strong 'buy' on Pizza stocks like
Yum! brands (owner of Pizza Hut) :-)

~~~
chickenfries
I think Dominoes is better equipped to serve this demographic.

~~~
nodesocket
Agree $DPZ is crushing it. They are also quite a bit ahead of the curve in
terms of making the technology shift.

~~~
antidaily
indeed
[https://www.optivo.com/data/domino/animated_gif.gif](https://www.optivo.com/data/domino/animated_gif.gif)

~~~
nodesocket
lol, the animated progress status is absurd...

~~~
criley2
The animation and silliness is absurd, but I've definitely seen people choose
Dominoes over similar cheap-tier national delivery chains based solely on the
tracker.

When you order PJ or PH, you get a "maybe in 30-45 minutes" email, but D gets
you the "out for delivery" notification.

The only thing better is Postmates/UberEats style tracking of delivery drivers
so you can track progress in real time.

~~~
lovich
Dominoes has ended up being me and my wife's go to default for ordering out
because its consistent, cheap, and the order tracking makes it easy to tell
when its coming. On some days it ends up being cheaper than cooking once you
factor in time to cook and clean.

------
__x0x__
This is a good thing. Vaporizing/eating cannabis appears to provide little to
no long-term harm to users, whereas alcoholism and alcohol related accidents
cause terrible harm.

And I know it's just an anecdote, but I'm a successful scientist with a PhD
who vaporizes daily. I prefer it to an alcohol buzz. No hangover, no
blackouts, no stupidity.

I will be sure to shed a tiny tear for the macrobrew industry, those poor,
poor shareholders.

~~~
watty
I'm not anti-pot whatsoever and would absolutely switch from booze to weed if
given a chance but isn't it flat out wrong to say "little to no long term
harm"?

I'm not arguing that it's better than alcohol or xyz but it does have side
effects.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-
term_effects_of_cannabis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-
term_effects_of_cannabis)

~~~
ytNumbers
That wikipedia page lists more than a dozen potential side effects; many of
them are quite devastating. I will never understand why a majority of the
younger generation views this kind of Russian roulette as something to be
celebrated. Perhaps someone in this forum, who is so inclined, can explain
their reasoning on this? Why do something that can so easily ruin your health?

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
There are two parts to answering your question:

1\. The message that it's _less_ harmful than some regularly consumed things
(eg, alcohol, cocaine, heroin) got smeared in to not being harmful.

2\. A lot of those studies have serious faults -- either in not controlling
the population that they're studying and confounding effects (eg, there might
be a correlation between mental disorders and drugs because people prone to
disorders are prone to seeking out drugs, not because drugs cause disorders;
people who smoke both marijuana and cigarettes in lung cancer studies without
adjusting for whether people also smoke tobacco) or they test at levels of
consumption which most people don't partake in (ie, alcohol is _really_ bad if
you're a heavy alcoholic, but most people don't have to worry about that).

I don't think that marijuana smoking is harmless, but I think the degree of
harm is obscured because of a lack of study, particularly long-term studies.
(And, well, let's be honest: some of the research put out about marijuana came
out of what are effectively government propaganda labs -- there was _very_
little chance that they wouldn't find it was 'dangerous', in order to justify
the scheduling.)

------
bluetwo
Calories in a six-pack of beer: 960

Calories in one joint: 0

~~~
levesque
Calories in the ungodly amounts of food eaten after smoking said joint:
roughly 960

~~~
maccard
Don't know about you, but if I go out for beers I almost always end up getting
1000+ calories worth of pizza/kebab/chips

~~~
vorpalhex
Mmm, beer and kebab.

------
mschuster91
A sidenote from a former bartender in a rough area: I'd be happy if this trend
continues. I've had loads over loads of alcohol-related fights, but never a
single problem with stoners. The stuff chills people down, in contrast to
alcohol which for some people is enough to get them out of control for
insulting their favorite politician...

------
barking
I've often thought about it as an alternative to alcohol for people with liver
damage but apparently it can damage the liver also. Even so this buzzfeed
article is a very interesting account by an alcoholic who reckons it helped
her quit the booze

[https://www.buzzfeed.com/katieherzog/how-i-smoked-my-way-
sob...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/katieherzog/how-i-smoked-my-way-
sober?utm_term=.rtA8gDzeb#.yv7R69mJD)

~~~
MaxfordAndSons
I'm no biochemist, but I'm fairly confident that the liver toxicity of
cannabis is orders of magnitude lower than alcohol.

The idea that cannabis can cause liver damage seems to have started from a
study[1] on the effects of chronic marijuana use in patients with Hepatits C,
a disease which primarily affects the liver. There was a correlation between
heavier cannabis use and worse liver fibrosis, but I think it's pretty
misleading to say "cannabis can damage the liver" \- so can acetaminophen,
vitamins, and a million other chemicals, if taken in vast excess or with an
already compromised liver.

[1][http://www.cghjournal.org/article/S1542-3565(07)01050-6/abst...](http://www.cghjournal.org/article/S1542-3565\(07\)01050-6/abstract)

~~~
barking
>>I'm no biochemist, but I'm fairly confident that the liver toxicity of
cannabis is orders of magnitude lower than alcohol.

I'm not sure how you can say that with any degree of confidence though. The
study you reference refers to cannabis use in people infected with hepatitis
C. Have you seen any results comparing the effects of alcohol on the liver in
a similar cohort of patients?

~~~
MaxfordAndSons
My confidence in that belief isn't related to the study; I only referenced the
study to point out that it had been misrepresented. The study has nothing to
say about the effects of cannabis on a healthy liver.

The reason I believe it is admittedly anecdotal, but I still find it
compelling: I've simply never heard of someone experiencing liver failure from
chronic heavy cannabis use alone, whereas chronic heavy alcohol use alone is
known to practically guarantee liver failure.

------
tribby
harborside, the bay area's largest purveyor of weed, recently opened a
thousand plus-acre facility in the central valley, it's like any other crop
dominated by big agriculture nowadays. it's the same people (mostly
immigrants) working in every other type of ag in the valley. I have to so I'm
surprised by how quickly it has normalized in the past few years. once federal
law is sorted I hope it'll be great for the california economy.

the cost will drop quickly as a result, and I wonder what that will do to
startups in the space. wholesale costs are plummeting but retail seems price-
fixed, which is unsustainable when you have enough competition. once retail
starts to plummet too -- say we reach a point where 3.5g costs the same as
what currently buys 1g -- the value proposition of things like leaf (the IoT
grow box) dies, and eaze, meadow, and all the other uber-for-weed startups
become too cost inefficient... it seems like a lot of startups in the general
weed space are (literally) banking on the fact that prices haven't dropped
yet, but I don't think that will last at all.

~~~
wcchandler
I'm in the process of becoming a farmer. Weed is one of the crops I've
researched. It could take a ~90% drop in price and still provide a sustainable
profit.

That's from a cultivators perspective.

~~~
walrus01
This will depend on local regulations if you want to do it totally legit. WA
state, for example, still does not allow farms to grow outdoors. It has to be
indoors in a controlled-access facility and uses a huge amount of electricity.

~~~
wcchandler
Oh yeah, that's definitely using my more optimistic numbers. But if those
costs are >10% of your costs (post first year) then you should definitely
rethink some things.

If I shoot for high yield (10 oz), 400w @ 0.17 per kWh * (18 hrs * (7 days * 4
weeks)) + (12 hrs * (7 days * 8 weeks)) = 400w @ $0.17 per kWh * (504 hrs +
672 hrs = 1176 hrs) = 471 kWh * 0.12 = $80.02. That's with Northern Lights
which would probably go for $1500 per pound, or ~$900 per plant per season.
Electricity (well just light, which should be >85% of your electrical costs)
would only account for 8% of the production costs.

Infrastructure costs would be amortized and recovered within the first year of
full scale operation but just for arguments sake you can source a secure grow
inside a $5000 insulated 40' shipping container. Conduit, outlets, panels,
grounding, etc. would be $3000 if hired out through Angieslist but if you DIY
it, $1000 is feasible. Including a sufficient ~4hr battery UPS. HVAC can then
similarly take $1000-$4000 depending on needs and necessities. Totalling out
to maybe $15,000?

A 40' container would comfortably do 3 seasons of 40 plants in 1 year,
effectively taxing each plant $125 for the first year. The yield would be
about 75 lbs @ $1500/lbs = $112,500 in year one. As such, each secure building
would only cut 13% of your first years profits... or put another way, 14% of
your first years plants' expense.

Granted, these are just Internet numbers. I can speak more candidly and openly
offline, but I reiterate -- all of your expenses should be < 10% for an indoor
grow op.

------
BigChiefSmokem
I perform very highly at work (pun intended) and have not seen continuous
daily usage over the past ten years hamper my career or health in the same way
drinking for the same amount of time would have caused (I drink maybe once
every few months, and only in social situations, never alone). A lot of people
where I work get high as well, roughly 3 out of every 4 engineers or so. This
is probably not an industry average or even close to it but it is "Stoners At
Work" for sure because this is the California culture, and as far as I can
tell, California still produces some of the best tech products and tech teams
on Earth and will continue to do so in spite of legalization. I think it might
even be helping people with mental health issues, especially those dealing
with severe stress and the quiet depression that is so pervasive in the tech
industry.

The zone I get into when I code high is amazing. It feels like I'm Da Vinci
re-incarnate, deeply thinking about my work. I seem to be able to piece things
from long term memory better (although I will admit that short-term memory and
situational awareness is severely hampered). It also takes away the clarity of
sobriety but the level of concentration and depth of thought it grants your
imagination is well worth it, and of course, is only temporary. It does
amplify even the smallest instinct of hunger so I tend to do it after I eat,
not before.

I also prefer to use it post-workout as it relaxes my muscles much better than
anything else outside of a warm jacuzzi. I'm guessing the inflammatory
response from the body also helps with recovery soon after a high-intensity
workout. I haven't looked at that aspect too deeply yet, I just know what my
body tells me. The high itself is also amplified post-workout so you actually
need to consume less to get the same effect as at rest.

These are my experiences, not science, but I'm guessing many others might
share similar experiences. Note that I do not smoke marijuana, only vaporize
it. Smoking in general is just bad internally and externally so I believe
vaporizing or ingestion are the best methods.

~~~
dwaltrip
Just to provide a countering anecdote: My cognitive abilities, including those
I use during programming, are adversely affected. The extent can vary, but
it's definitely noticeable for me.

------
memracom
I believe that one of the main verified aspects of cannabis consumption is
something called the munchies. Users want to eat. And when humans eat, they
want to drink as well. And if the cannabis use is in a social context, the
food that they eat will be social food. Since people are programmed to drink
beer with social food, I can only see the use of cannabis being a driver for
beer consumption.

However, there will likely be a big impact on beer sales for Wall street. They
see the beer sales of big publicly traded companies, brands like Budweiser,
etc. But in the world of cannabis consumption people are more likely to be
consuming beer from small local breweries, which fly under Wall Street's radar
because they are more like trendy restaurants than like McDonalds.

I do expect legal weed to change things, but I don't expect beer sales to go
down. However the big breweries will lose market share because consumption
patterns will change. If your business model requires vast numbers of people
to buy your product, then a future in which people are more diverse, is not a
good one for you.

And if you look at how many people are explicitly rejecting mass conformity
such as political correctness, you can see problems for Wall Street while at
the same time business is booming and local scale businesses thrive.

------
doubt_me
Should have been rescheduled already. What's the hold up

~~~
dleslie
Weed ensures there's a steady supply of safe arrests and easy convictions. It
keeps police looking busy and jails full. Politicians love it because it
pushes up convictions, and so makes them look tough on crime.

Police unions, private prison corporations and politicians all have strong
incentive to oppose legalization.

~~~
GFischer
In my country (Uruguay), marijuana is legal, but police still hate it.

Headlines today here were about a 19 year old rural young person who was in
the legal register (yes, you have to register to grow or purchase marijuana,
not something the U.S. will like), but police still locked him up saying he
was over the legal limit, by weighing untreated marijuana and saying each
branch was a different plant (maximum allowed by law is 6).

Spanish language link:

[http://www.montevideo.com.uy/contenido/Procesaron-con-
prisio...](http://www.montevideo.com.uy/contenido/Procesaron-con-prision-por-
cultivo-de-marihuana-a-joven-que-estaba-registrado-342134)

Google translate:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.montevideo.com.uy%2Fcontenido%2FProcesaron-
con-prision-por-cultivo-de-marihuana-a-joven-que-estaba-
registrado-342134&edit-text=&act=url)

~~~
dleslie
The "each branch is a new plant" was once a common tactic here, as well. I
suppose that police everywhere dislike the loss of authority.

------
k-mcgrady
In the US. I'm not sure about many other countries but, in the UK at least,
there isn't even a discussion around legalizing marijuana for any use case
(not even medical really). It was big news this week when the first
prescription marijuana was given however it was non-THC oil and given to a
severely ill child. That's how far behind things are here.

------
nodesocket
I'm somewhat surprised as alcohol expenses in a given month on average tend to
be a lot more expensive than marijuana. You can buy 1/4 for around $100 which
should last a full month even with a <strike>heavy</strike> moderate smoker.

~~~
mnm1
Wishful thinking. :) I'd say 1/8 oz a day (about 1 oz a week / 4 oz a month)
would not be unusual for a single, heavy smoker/vaper with bigger amounts most
certainly possible (depending on tolerance, way of consumption (efficiency),
and quality of the flower). This is just for one person. Ounces range from
around ~ $120 - $500 or more across the country (if bought in bulk). You
really cannot underestimate tolerance. As far as I have been able to discern,
there is no upper limit on it. At some point, you can consume all the cannabis
you want and simply not get much higher. I have no doubt there are many people
consuming (and possibly spending) way more than these numbers indicate too.

~~~
criley2
4 oz of weed per month is one of the most outrageously heavy uses I've ever
heard of.

It would be grossly unusual for a single user. Grossly, extravagantly,
extremely unusual.

I'd wager that less than 0.1% of all cannabis users approach 4g/day. They may
binge up to 4g on their heaviest day of all time, but average far lower.

I would argue it's very unusual if only because the set of all people who can
access 4oz/weed per month, and can afford the $1000-$2000/mo ($24,000/yr!)
hobby is very small. Add up all of the trust fund kids with enough money, time
and access and you have a tiny, tiny number of people.

An average heavy user can only afford that much weed if they're dealing and
skimming, and supply and demand insists that not everyone can be a supplier.
Even so, I'd wager the average heavy user chooses to use far, far, far less
than 1oz every other week.

~~~
str33t_punk
Please, these are posters on Hacker News. We work at tech companies and make
large salaries. If you purchasing that much you are probably only spending
$800 per month (prices get lower the more you use). While this is still around
10k a year it is definitely very manageable on a 6 figure salary

~~~
danielbln
Be that as it may, GP said 4g/day is "not unusual", and I would argue that
while not impossible, that much is certainly unusual (as in, not common).

~~~
dismantlethesun
Lots of thing can be not unusual while being uncommon. Hearing someone is a
software engineer isn't unusual but we are only 2.54% of the working
population in the USA.

------
Dowwie
Tip of the iceberg. I'm far more interested in how industries are affected by
hemp (paper, textiles, chemicals). Where are all the YC-back hemp-focused
startups?

~~~
GFischer
Hemp has been legal forever, AFAIK, what would the difference be now? More
supply?

------
conanbatt
The misleading title made me think weed would outsell beer, which dumbfounded
me.

Jeez. Have some integrity.

~~~
greglindahl
From a Wall Street point of view, a 2% drop in beer sales is a big deal. I
agree that the average person would probably misinterpret this headline.

------
pottersbasilisk
Will it? I've visited colorado and saw bars and alcohol doing well. Im not
convinced the demographics are the same.

~~~
oxide
Parties I attend tend to have both plenty of marijuana and beer handy. People
want to drink for a variety of reasons.

Sure, some people (myself included) prefer a bit of weed or a brownie over a
few beers, but that's a personal preference thing.

hell, my grandmother smokes marijuana and still has a beer or two before bed.

/anecdotal evidence

------
Theodores
I find it hard to believe that Americans like their weed this much. Smoking
tobacco - gateway drug to smoking weed - is not the thing people do these
days, unlike in past times when 'everyone' smoked. If smoking is not
recreational/sociable, how do people start with weed in the USA? Is it just
for kids?

Then there are all those meth epidemics and cocaine users and prescription
opiates making the USA 'fun'. For kids that have gone straight to heroin from
prescription drugs, what is the attraction of weed? It would be like an
alcoholic going for a lemonade shandy rather than another bottle of
wine/spirits/cider/super-strength beer.

I thought weed was going the way of interesting trippy drugs - LSD, mushrooms
- that exist but people don't go crazy for. Nowadays the disease of addiction
has better outlets in U.S.A. and the social aspect of smoking is gone, so who
smokes pot in the USA these days apart from those with medical reasons to do
so?

~~~
linkregister
I am curious if you have never visited the United States, you're atypically
nonsocial, or live in an isolated region.

I'm really interested as to how you got your perspective, as I find all of
your premises bizarre.

~~~
Theodores
I am one of those people that used to visit the U.S.A. but stopped going some
years ago. Why might that be?!?

Allegedly there was an election recently and some people voted for the crazy
guy with small hands because he promised to build a wall to keep the drugs
out. I don't think it was a bit of weed that concerned people, it was the
epidemic in the truly destructive opiate/cocaine/crystal meth drugs that
motivated them to vote.

From what I hear all of this sad addiction epidemic goes on in isolated
regions, rural America with 30 million Americans - mostly vulnerable people -
getting hooked on the crazy drugs due to being prescribed opiates and then
having to score on the street because it is cheaper. There is nothing
recreational about this type of sad drug use, it is death spiral addiction
where nobody does well as a recovering addict.

These drugs get TV advertised, 'ask your doctor' is a unique U.S.A. thing, as
is watching hours of TV laced with advertising. The rest of the world is not
racing along with consumerism at the same level being bombarded with adverts
for dangerous medications. But articles make it onto the web describing the
horrors of the situation:

[https://www.vox.com/science-and-
health/2017/3/23/14987892/op...](https://www.vox.com/science-and-
health/2017/3/23/14987892/opioid-heroin-epidemic-charts)

Sounds to me like the U.S.A. has turned into a land of zombies with people in
California still safe, but, good luck if you live in New Mexico or Ohio, you
are not going to be far from one of these otherwise dull and unremarkable
Americans turned criminal crazy by prescription drugs.

So is that a tenth of the population doing shameful drugs that are totally not
'recreational' or social? These people are not spending their money on weed as
they have the percocet or whatever to score or their crystal meth to 'shake
and bake'.

I don't see how a population engaged in such activities can also support a
'healthy' dope smoking scene particularly when normal smoking of tobacco has
been made a taboo thing to do.

~~~
linkregister
Thanks for sharing your perspective. If I may, I think that you have taken
U.S. sensational news stories and popular movies as your entire context of the
U.S. Since nobody else is respecting your point of view, I'll share.

1\. Smoking tobacco is seen as a mild taboo, but many people still do it. As
long as the smoking is done outside and away from a main entrance, it's
unlikely anyone will comment.

2\. A large amount of people are addicted to prescription opiates, but if you
go to New Mexico or Ohio, it's not going to look like a scene out of _The
Walking Dead_. The total amount of addicted people is estimated to be 2
million [1]. Out of 300 million people, it means that this tragedy is hidden
unless you personally know an affected person. By the way, many in California
_are_ affected by this issue.

3\. Tobacco isn't considered a "gateway" to cannabis use by experts or
credible laypeople. Tobacco users and Cannabis users have little relation or
overlap.

4\. Cannabis is usually introduced in the same manner as alcohol (at parties
or small gatherings of friends), though alcohol is far more socially
acceptable. Cannabis has never been primarily considered a "trippy" drug in
the U.S. ---though there are many people who do use it that way--- it's more
of a recreational substance. Cannabis use has declined among the under
18-year-olds over the past decade, but has increased among adults.

4\. There are many methamphetamine and heroin addicts in absolute numbers, but
again, they do not dominate any metropolitan area. Sure, it is easy to find
addicts among homeless populations, but it isn't like _Crash_ , _Breaking Bad_
, or _The Wire_ in terms of pervasiveness and intensity.

1\.
[https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html](https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html)

