To be sure, it’s not just Gen Z that’s increasingly embracing cannabis. Over the last 20 years, the percentage of Americans who support legalization has doubled, and more than 60 percent now have access to some form of legal weed, with medical programs even popping up in more conservative states such as Utah and Oklahoma. Industry observers point to the national conversation about the medical benefits of pot as a key turning point for public perceptions of the plant. Still, only 7 percent of Baby Boomers use it, a survey by Bloomberg and Morning Consult found.
Duckworth, a millennial, takes some of her meetings at a dog park in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice and she’s often touting a joint—to her, it’s no different than meeting a professional contact for a drink after work, only there’s no risk of a hangover. And that’s a big part of it. Younger Americans’ love of cannabis appears to be coming, at least in part, at the expense of alcohol, which saw volumes decline in the U.S. in 2018 for a third straight year. That’s primarily due to sinking beer sales, as younger Americans view marijuana, broadly speaking, as a healthier option, free of carbs, calories and the next day’s headaches.
That’s the case with Angelica Bishop, a UCLA transfer student with a part-time job at a law firm and a 3.9 GPA who grew up in California. At 23, she’s right on the cusp between Generation Z and millennials. With work and school, Bishop’s busy most days from roughly 8 a.m. until midnight. She gets high before philosophy class—she said she didn’t think this would work if she were majoring in, say, math or biology—and said it helps her “think about things like existentialism without barriers.”
“When it comes to alcohol I’m really turned off,” said Bishop, who uses a vape pen to get her buzz. “If you drink too much you end up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. If I smoke too much, I sleep really well.”
Americans are getting more introverted, a lifestyle the fits well with cannabis, according to John Dick, who runs the data and polling firm CivicScience. Going to the bar doesn’t sound as appealing to younger consumers when they can stay home, watch Netflix, scroll through Snapchat and order food for delivery, he said. Dick found a strong correlation between Americans who had reported using CBD, the hemp-derived compound that doesn’t get you high, and survey respondents who said they would prefer to watch a movie at home, rather than go to the theater.
“We’re realizing that deep down we’re introverts,” Dick said. “You don’t need rocket science to figure out how that’s going to change things.”
High school and college students smoking weed is nothing new, but with more discrete products—like vape pens and edibles—now available, and with the legal risks diminished, there’s less reason to give it up as adulthood beckons. In fact, studies suggest Americans who smoked when they were younger in legal markets are not aging out of cannabis like past generations.
For Gen Z, the assumption is that more and more states, if not the federal government, will legalize marijuana in coming years, opening up the market even more. The stigma is also expected to continue dissipating as the generation of Americans raised on reefer-madness panic ages. And while weed might not be right for a wedding or night out with co-workers, the expansion of the products available could eat into alcohol’s stranglehold as America’s top choice for cutting loose.
“It’s becoming much more palatable,” said Bethany Gomez, managing director of Brightfield Group, a cannabis research firm. “It’s not crazy to think the usage rate could eventually be similar to alcohol.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.