Who Smoked Pot?

I found an article on Gallup from 2002 that caught my eye. It goes into the issue of who has actually smoked marijuana and some statistics on the fact. Statistics show that a third of Americans (34%) said they had tried marijuana at some point. Men were more likely than women to have tried it, 43% to 27%. One might expect to find generational differences, but the proportion of 18- to -29-year-olds and the proportion of 30- to -49-year-olds who say they have tried it are about the same -- 46% and 45%, respectively. However, the figure plummets to 14% among those aged 50 and older.

Some see Marijuana use as a "city problem" that has not made it's way to suburban America. In fact, there's the numbers show little difference in drug experimentation by population center. 38% of urban dwellers have tried marijuana, as have 31% of suburbanites, and 34% of people who live in rural areas.

As Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to think marijuana use should be legal (21% versus 36%), it stands to reason that Republicans would be less likely to have tried marijuana. From the poll, about the SAME amount of Republicans have tried Marijuana as Democrats. (33% to 31%). 


It's always fascinating to see different ideologies in numbers. I personally would expect Republicans, being conservative in nature and against drug use, to have much lower percentages when polled on drug use. These numbers show how drug use cannot be characterized by party, race, religion or sex. Marijuana use is prevalent all over America. These numbers are from 2002, so I would have to imagine they have been on the rise ever since.