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Will Legalization Make Cannabis Uncool?


Pramana

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Now with cannabis about to become legal in Canada, I'm wondering if the ironic result will be that the product loses its coolness factor?

Some reasons to suspect that cannabis is becoming uncool:
1. American states with legal weed now feature marijuana resorts that charge hundreds of dollars a night for the opportunity to sample high grade strains while overlooking beautiful mountain vistas.
2. There are now marijuana lifestyle magazines that market to young urban professionals.
3. Cannabis is really weak, when compared to other recreational drugs.

My friends think that weed fails to even qualify as a "real drug", and are perpetually making fun of the product on account of the reasons outlined above. Now it's hard to say whether my social group is representative of the general population, but this observation speaks to the fact that today weed faces stiff competition. For those reasons, I personally can't imagine ever buying legal weed either.

But what do other people think? Will legalization cost cannabis its coolness factor, and thus ironically reduce demand, at least among certain segments of the population? If you live in a state or a country that already has legalized cannabis, how has the product's image been affected?

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Honestly, easier access might make people more excited about it. I mean, a bunch of kids at my school vape just because it's available to them so weed might increase in "coolness factor" as you put it. But MelBel is right that weed shouldn't be what makes people like you/think that you're cool. You can do that yourself.

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If cool = counter cultural then legalization will serve to make it uncool. Blue jeans were once farm clothing worn by college students as a form of protest against the system. The system fought back with the oldest trick in the book. If you can't beat then don't join them. Just pretend you do to get the best of both worlds. When blue jeans became fashion clothing it meant the counter cultural movement was dead. The empire had won.

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Alejandrogynous

Wait, smoking weed makes you cool? News to me. :lol:

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My understanding of the relevant history is that within 1960s/1970s counterculture weed was considered cool due to associations with rebelliousness, but like @Yeast writes that has been diffused through incorporation into the mainstream. My thought is that legalization will hasten this process, thus reducing weed's coolness factor even further.

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I've never actually met anyone who smokes weed 'to be cool' (maybe that's what young kids do when they sneak into their parent's stash for the first time, because they think it's 'cool'?). Everyone I've known who smokes weed does it either because it helps mellow them (my ex never hit me when he smoking weed and I know a lot of other people whose partners were less violent when smoking), just as a recreational thing to help relax (same with alcohol, generally someone is either a booze person or a weed person) or for medicinal purposes like my dad who has chronic pain issues and psychological issues, the weed helps him manage his pain and his mind.

 

11 minutes ago, Pramana said:

My understanding of the relevant history is that within 1960s/1970s counterculture weed was considered cool due to associations with rebelliousness, but like @Yeast writes that has been diffused through incorporation into the mainstream. My thought is that legalization will hasten this process, thus reducing weed's coolness factor even further.

....Maybe in the 60s and 70s but that's not really relevant today at all (and to be honest, I'm not sure many people would have smoked it to be cool even back then). The fact is, most people who smoke it legitimately do so just because they enjoy it, and in many cases they prefer it to other drugs. My ex (who is 14 years older than me) and all his mates were deep in the 'drug culture' but weed was most often their drug of choice over the harder stuff because they were least likely to go psycho on wed the way they did with stuff like LSD and meth. I personally can't stand weed, prefer alcohol myself (been sober a while though thankfully) but yeah, the only people smoking it to be 'cool', or who think weed is 'cool' are 13 year olds who sneaked into their parents stash.

 

edit: the insert key had been on for half of this comment and a whole lot of words in each sentence were deleted making it look like I was having a seizure while typing (which  I would have been able to control if I'd had some weed - because yes, it helps people with seizure disorders too!) ..anyway, I've fixed it now, hopefully no one read it before I fixed it :P

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RoseGoesToYale

I doubt it. During prohibition, everyone went bananas for booze, and after it was legalized again, well... then no one could afford it anymore. But when they could afford it again... well, WWII happened, and everything was rationed. But once that was over... nope, they still weren't drinking as much as before. OK: people really went bananas for it again in the 70s and 80s for reasons I can't fathom because I wasn't alive then. Alcohol is actually more popular in the US today than it was in the 1900s.

 

I think a lot of it will depend on what companies and advertisers decide to do with it. Right now it's still pretty hush-hush. You have to buy it in tiny, barely-marked dispensaries and it's sort of frowned upon to go running around everywhere with it very conspicuously, which still makes it feel cool and rebellious.

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16 minutes ago, RoseGoesToYale said:

Alcohol is actually more popular in the US today than it was in the 1900s.

That's true, but addictive substances don't really go 'in and out' depending on what people are saying about them or how they're being advertised or whatever :o If people who want them can get them, they will get them, regardless of whether or not people are saying it's cool. No one is saying drinking methylated spirits is cool, but I've known alkys who drink it because it's much cheaper than buying the stuff that won't make you go blind. Alcohol has been a part of human culture for millennia not because it's considered cool, but because many people legitimately enjoy the way it makes them feel, or because it makes them stop feeling (and then become addicted to it in many cases, so can't stop drinking it no matter where or how they have to get it - in the brothel I worked at there were many girls who came through just trying to feed their drug or alcohol habits with the money they made - no one is saying that is cool).

 

Also, people were still drinking alcohol right through the prohibition, again not because it's 'cool', but because they wanted it. They just faced a world of hurt if they were caught with it.

 

16 minutes ago, RoseGoesToYale said:

I think a lot of it will depend on what companies and advertisers decide to do with it. Right now it's still pretty hush-hush. You have to buy it in tiny, barely-marked dispensaries and it's sort of frowned upon to go running around everywhere with it very conspicuously, which still makes it feel cool and rebellious

It's still not 'legal' here, and all the people I've known who smoke it (which is many) absolutely hate that it's so hush hush, that it costs sh*tloads because it's so hard to get, and knowing that they will be arrested if they're caught with it, and that's even more infuriating for those with pain or psychological disorders they're trying to treat with weed because nothing else will help. They still want the drug though, because they legitimately enjoy it or because it legitimately helps them. They're not putting themselves through all that risk just for something they think is 'cool' :o

 

I think there are a lot of misconceptions in this thread about why people indulge in certain drugs. Yes there will always be the younguns who just do something because they're trying to look cool, but the vast majority of people who regularly consume drugs do so either because they legitimately enjoy that drug, or they're too addicted to it to give it up (or of course there are the people who do weed for medicinal purposes, of which there are many). Most also are either well something is not cool at all (like smoking cigarettes even though they still enjoy them) or don't care either way. :)

 

 

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I recall that even ten or so years ago the landscape was different. For sure when I was in high school or undergrad weed was considered cool and had a positive image. Part of the difference is that weed has now become popularized to such an extent that I find people don't even consider it to be a drug anymore. Perhaps the way to explain the situation is to say that weed has become decoupled from the drug scene.

In addition, I've been following alternative right counterculture discourse on 4chan, including the science and math /sci/ board where there's much discussion of drug use, and while posts are more often favourable towards stimulants and psychedelics, there's noticeably more antipathy towards marijuana. That suggests a significant cultural shift in perception, where people who wish to project a countercultural ethos actually avoid marijuana (or, at least, make fun of it on the Internet) because it's too mainstream.

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I never smoked it myself but in Canada we are legalizing it and I think thats a good thing.I think that when you're younger pot may be seen as something rebellious or it may not, honest;y it depends on what people think cool is. I dont think legalizing it will do anything to change peoples minds for the most part.

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Kids will always find it cool. A lot of kids find smoking cigarettes cool. I don't think it is a good thing. Things shouldn't be done to look cool.

 

I have never smoked it and don't know if I ever would, however I am in favour of the legality of it. I would be more inclined to try it if it were legal but not because of coolness. I don't need to be perceived as cool. 

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When was weed cool?? I musta missed that. I always thought it was kind of... lazy and degenerate. Like, you don't talk about it with family, at work, with some friends, etc. That's not cool to me. Even as a teenager I don't remember it being cool, but to be fair I was a teenager when Clueless came out. Weed = Burnout. 

 

It's awesome now that it's legal. It IS cool now. There are cannabis science workshops, groups creating cool genetics, farm tours, ridiculous amounts of info on terpenes, various cannabinoids, THC levels, lineage, genetic relevance, etc. There's packaging and advertising and there are now weed trends. Like, Phat Panda has a Royal Kush out right now that's getting a lot of buzz. And in Oregon, the strain Mt. Hood Magic is so popular it only stays on dispensary shelves for a couple days at a time. 

 

All that being said, I'm with Ficto... people do drugs for reasons beyond coolness. Which is highly dependent on one's immediate culture and social group anyway. 

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paperbackreader

Sorry, can I get a definition for cool please? 

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Everything seems to have its "cool" time for want of a better word. 

Hopefully legalisation will reduce the criminal activity involved in the business, and maybe break the cannabis >stronger stuff >career criminal chain 

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12 hours ago, FictoVore. said:

....Maybe in the 60s and 70s ... (and to be honest, I'm not sure many people would have smoked it to be cool even back then) ...

:D I definitely did it to be cool then, and so did the people around me. Yay, that's a first, me disagreeing with Ficto; well, almost disagreeing, the 'many' bit covers the case really.

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1 hour ago, Thea2 said:

:D I definitely did it to be cool then, and so did the people around me. Yay, that's a first, me disagreeing with Ficto; well, almost disagreeing, the 'many' bit covers the case really.

 Haha yes as I said, there will always be people (especially youngins) who do drugs or other dangerous stuff to be cool. A lot of the kids at my school used to huff aerosols and see how long we could go without food (inducing vomiting when we did eat) just because it was kind of a coolness factor thing. You were badass if you could huff toxic shit, drink petrol, that kind of nonsense. Some of the kids would even throw themselves off bridges into shallow water as a 'badass' thing - that's all pretty extreme I know, but the point I'm making is that yes, there will always be those people who dangerous stuff (including smoking cigarettes, drink driving etc) just for the coolness factor - weed is actually minor in comparison because it apparently kills a lot less people than most other addictive substances? But at the same time, that would have only been happening in certain crowds. There are other crowds where people would have been smoking it out of legitimate enjoyment, and I know it's actually been used for different purposes (inlcuding medicinal) for millennia. I should have worded my comment better, but it was more just a response to Pramanas assumption that it was considered cool apparently by everyone back then :P and he then went on to say it was considered cool by the kids in his highschool so yeah, that about sums it up. Highschool kids think all sorts of dumb shit is cool, and I'm sure it's even worse now than it was when I was in school haha.

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47 minutes ago, FictoVore. said:

... it was more just a response to Pramanas assumption that it was considered cool apparently by everyone back then :P and he then went on to say it was considered cool by the kids in his highschool ...

:lol: That explains it all. I had not read the rest of the thread, my apologies. :cake: :)

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6 hours ago, paperbackreader said:

Sorry, can I get a definition for cool please? 

Your're not it. :lol: 

 

(P.S. this is not a personal insult, it's my idea of a joke. If you have to ask what it is, you're not it.)

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Ms. Carolynne

@FictoVore. When I was in highschool, about 5 years ago, spice was the in thing.

 

Spice is synthetic cannabinoids, it was in a legal gray area for a bit, so it was easier to obtain than marijuana. You could buy it at the gas station if you were 18 or older. The problem is, it's way more dangerous and can cause brain hemorrhages.

 

Legislation and law enforcement have since cracked down on it where I live, and it has fallen out of fashion.

 

I think the kids are eating laundry detergent and microwaving tin foil these days :rolleyes:

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I knew a guy who couldn't get through the work day without smoking it. If anything, he'll probably smoke more since it'll be easier to get a hold of now. A lot of the old timers up here casually smoke it from time to time. Seems to me like it's not just in "cool" phase, it's just always been here. And of course it's one of the starting drugs younger kids try out(chewing tobacco used to be a big contender a decade ago).

 

With the upcoming legalization I think what'll really happen is people will be more obvious about their usage of it up here. And it'll probably stay the gateway drug for kids in the countryside since it's probably the most exotic thing country folks can obtain without too much hassle.

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Where i live cannabis is legalized already, but i never saw it as cool or smoked it myself so I  don't really know if there has been a shift in the perception here. All I know is that weed is readily available for whoever is willing to go to the dispensery and buy it. With limitations of course, I'm sure there is a minimum age and all that. Nonetheless there will be more young people getting into it just because they can ("what do you mean mom and dad, it's legal so what's your problem??" Lol).  I also know that there are many (conservative) people who are very angry that it is not still outlawed in these here parts. Which prooobably makes it more tempting for others to prove them wrong for being so opposed. 

 

Other than that, I think a majority of people who use it now are the same ones who used it for medical reasons before. Aka to relieve pain or help them relax from stress/anxiety, so it's good now that they don't have to jump through hoops to obtain what is basically a medication for them. I agree with the above posts that pointed out the fact that people usually see this as a necessity rather than a "cool" thing to take or leave whenever society changes their views on it.

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paperbackreader
3 hours ago, Thea2 said:

Your're not it. :lol: 

 

(P.S. this is not a personal insult, it's my idea of a joke. If you have to ask what it is, you're not it.)

I enjoyed the jo-ssault (joke/insult /assault) :lol: 

 

I've never tried cannabis /any other recreational drugs myself, combination of knowing I'm easily addicted and not liking to break rules / worry about effects on my brain...  It just absolutely baffles me that some people would do this for a form of vanity or to fit in better with their peers and am even more baffled that legalization may change people's perception of whether or not it is cool... 

 

However, I support legalization. It appears that cannabis has many medicinal uses, and a pure form made more easily accessible is much less problematic and potentially better in the balance of things than allowing its cheaper, more lethal and much more problematic competitors to proliferate... I guess I kinda see it as a way to take the edge off the more harmful effects of illegal trade

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I've seen people smoke weed to be cool, but they were quickly cut off as losers or pathetic for even attempting in doing so. Cheech and Chong in the real world, would be considered burnouts, or (insert negative stigma about those who smoke a lot of weed).

 

Smoking weed does not make you cool. Period.

 

So you can't lose something you've never had.

 

However, legalized marijuana will make the drug more accessible than ever and as such, may increase the volume of people who do it on a recreational level. May also have an unintended consequence of having younger people start consuming it.

 

This, or the volume of people driving while high, increasing.

 

This is something police will need to figure out, before the legalized weed is put on the market. How to spot it, test for it on the spot, and make an arrest, or take action immediately, if someone clearly is a danger to others.

 

They will have to be careful how they market it. There are tons of companies I'm seeing selling flavored weed, or weed cigarettes, or candy or cake mix or the like. This is where you're inadvertently targeting a younger demographic.

 

With poorer judgment making skills, last thing you want is more youth behind the wheel, high.

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SorryNotSorry

I doubt it.

 

I've never smoked anything, but I know that people who smoke various substances do so to get high, even if that high is just a slight head rush. Coolness has nothing to do with craving a high.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 15/04/2018 at 1:03 AM, Pramana said:

Cannabis is really weak [...] My friends think that weed fails to even qualify as a "real drug"

Well, cannabis is a soft drug, meaning you don't get physically addicted to it. As opposed to alcohol and nicotine, which are a hard drugs. So to me it makes perfect sense to legalise cannabis. Off course, I'm Dutch, where strictly speaking cannabis is illegal, but it's official policy to ignore this. And cannabis is as cool as alcohol.

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