Some youth cultures embrace the usage of marijuana despite opposition.
For college students, smoking marijuana can seem like a universal pastime.
Towels are shoved in the cracks of doors, windows are lodged open with box fans and air fresheners are on hand for some students.
Avoiding getting caught can be a pastime, too.
One in 17 college students surveyed nationwide use marijuana on a daily basis, according to a University of Michigan survey that asked 1,500 college students about their daily smoking habits. The study did not account for periodic users, so it’s possible that more people are using marijuana than the study suggests.
Users have taken to evolved, engineered strains of marijuana — just one of the many changes to the culture surrounding marijuana in the past few decades.
“Nowadays you have hydroponically grown, perfect strains,” Nick Schmitz, an Ohio University freshman studying business, said. “Weed is a part of American culture in that way. We took it and created something different.”
For more than 50 years, smoking marijuana has been almost a rite of passage for teenagers growing up, with smokers often lighting up for their first time in high school.
“My first time was cool,” Schmitz said. “I was at my friend’s house and invited a bunch of people over, and we ended up just wandering the neighborhood. It was like a movie. I woke up the next morning covered in cookies, half-eaten chicken tenders and french fries. I was like, ‘All right, this is awesome.’ ”
Though smoking marijuana has become a daily habit for some, it is also a yearly event for many — those who know the call of April 20, or 4/20, are familiar with that sentiment.
The annual event, which started in the early ’70s by a group of California-based high school students smoking weed, gained popularity when one of the students decided to tell his brother’s friend, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, about their 4/20 tradition, and Lesh popularized the term. Now, 4/20 is celebrated by stoners across the globe, according to VICE News.
Still, marijuana hasn’t always been celebrated. During the past century, the drug has cycled through periods of demonization and romanticism.
Stoned-ciety
Reefer Madness, a 1936 film that portrays marijuana users as crazed, unreasonable people with marijuana withdrawal, acted as propaganda and ultimately caused people to turn away from marijuana and marijuana culture.
Pineapple Express, a 2008 film starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, follows two lazy “stoners” who have one goal in mind: to get high.
Still, the general stereotype of a stoner is vague.
“(Older people) talk about how back then they could smoke a lot of it and be fine, but today it is so much stronger,” Schmitz said. “You take one hit and can be asleep on the couch all day.”
Some advocates for legalization, such as the Ohio Rights Group President Mary Jane Borden, believe there can be intellectual benefits to smoking marijuana. Borden said the drug can make people “more introspective and more sensitive to their environment,” adding that marijuana “spreads open-mindedness” — a near-opposite claim to Reefer Madness.
Marijuana can have both good and bad effects on the brain. Although smoking marijuana can be used to effectively treat pain, it can also impair attention and memory span with short-term use, according to a report published by the American Psychological Association.
Debunked myths and ousted stereotypes have led to a change of heart about smoking marijuana for many young adults.
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David Parkhill, a sophomore studying business administration and political science and president of the Ohio College Republicans, said marijuana smokers will soon “be everyday people” with 9-to-5 jobs.
Culture of cannabis
Woodstock, the 1969 music festival that spread “three days of peace, love, and music,” highlighted the trend that was beginning to form in pop culture and music: smoking pot.
“The ’60s is the time that grass does become mainstream,” Chester Pach, an OU history professor who teaches a class on the 1960s, said. “It’s no longer ‘Reefer Madness.’ It’s something that is widely accepted.”
After more than 70 years of laws prohibiting the use and cultivation of marijuana and after stigmas suggesting that marijuana leads to adverse effects on the user’s body and mental health, the drug began to gain popularity in the lives of American teenagers.
The era of “Reefer Madness” ended and the era of hippie culture began, Pach said.
“It starts in the counterculture,” Pach said. “People who don’t want material goals to influence them, people who want to live differently, people who want something authentic.”
For those in the counter culture, drugs became a means to experience that authenticity, Pach said.
“That was kind of the tipping point where attitudes toward cannabis changed,” Borden said. “Before then, it was in the prohibitive mindset.”
David P. Little, a retired member of the Marijuana Policies of Ohio Task Force, said he heard about classmates using marijuana in the late ’60s, but did not realize how prevalent it was until later in his life.
Not only were young people using it for its psychoactive effects, but Little said they also used it for a sense of togetherness. He said he fondly remembers the “pot parties” from his teenage years when people would gather to smoke for hours on end.
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As marijuana usage increased, opposition grew in American politics.
In the 1980s, First Lady Nancy Reagan started leading an opposition against drugs, called the “Just Say No” campaign. The campaign led to a negative image of marijuana and decreased usage, Pach said.
Reefer regulation
In Ohio, possessing fewer than 100 grams of marijuana and giving a gift of fewer than 20 grams are both minor misdemeanors, according to the Ohio Revised Code. Those offenses carry fines up to $150, according to the Ohio Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Medical marijuana was first made legal in California in 1996. Though marijuana remains illegal in Ohio, it is legal in 24 states, with Pennsylvania being the most recent one to have legalized it. However, Ohioans may be able to vote on two ballot amendments that could legalize marijuana for medical purposes this November, if the proposed House Bill 523 doesn’t pass first.
Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said marijuana use is prevalent in Athens, adding that Athens Police Department officers make about one marijuana-related arrest per week.
But with the influx in use of other drugs, such as heroin and methamphetamine, police are cracking down less frequently on marijuana use, Little said.
“Generally, we aren’t looking for marijuana violations,” OU Police Lt. Tim Ryan said. “There are more important things to focus on. If we see it, we will take care of it.”
In 2014, the OU Police Department recorded 115 drug abuse violations that led to disciplinary referrals on campus property, and a majority of those were for marijuana. In comparison, there were 684 liquor law violations on campus that led to referrals.
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Pach said it’s hard to know what is going to happen over current college students’ lifetimes. Still, attitudes toward marijuana in Ohio are changing.
“I think that the future is going to where the stereotype isn’t just going to be those people (who smoke),” Parkhill said. “They’re seeing that it is not as big of a deal as it was before.”
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