RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 1

Breaking the Taboo:

Understanding the Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana

Jullianna Stalbaum

University of Central Florida

ENC 1102; Professor Guenzel

RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 2

Introduction

In today’s day and age, the evolution of technology is so rapid, wide-spread, and efficient

that the influence of media is practically inescapable. This can be seen through the influential

aspects of political campaigns, the constant surge of information accessible through the internet,

or through feeding the world knowledge of everyday concerns, digital media has become one of

the most prominent governing factors of our society. Digital media, however, is one of the more

controversial aspects of society due to its interchanging perspectives and common lack of

foundation in its information; in other words, it takes into regards what the overall population’s

opinion is and outputs that perspective. Whether or not this is reliable is purely up to the viewer

to find out, and as we know, the ignorant spread of false information is a digital epidemic.

Advertisements, as described by Proctor, et al. (2001), are “By law, any formal assertion

or claim made in an advertisement requires substantive evidence. As a consequence, advertisers

tend to avoid making such claims and subsequently disguise product information.” In essence,

when we look into advertisements, we have to consider the diction, connotation, and other

stylistic choices used by the creator. The persuasive techniques that are demonstrated all over an

advertisement often go unnoticed by the viewer, and as a result, they do not realize how much

they may be being manipulated. This tactic is commonly used to shape public opinion on

prevalent social issues, a common example being the war on drugs.

Nowadays, it is not an uncommon sight to see a sign advertising Medical Marijuana

Cards or Marijuana Dispensaries nearby (however, subjective to each state). Our society has

become much more accepting of medical and recreational use of marijuana, and this can be

shown through the copious amounts of marijuana advertisements that have sprung up in

considerably larger numbers in the past decade. I have noticed that there is a growing acceptance
RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 3

of seeking cannabis as a means of therapeutic treatment, and that acceptance has become

integrated into our society to the extent of driving a culture shift on views about marijuana usage.

In the past, countless campaigns were dedicated to spreading highly dramatized, often false

information about marijuana i=for the sole purpose of fear mongering. Historically, marijuana

has been criminalized specifically in order to incarcerate black and Hispanic youth, leading to a

large stigma surrounding the usage of the drug. As a society, we view marijuana as a threat to

our lives due to the way it has been advertised and made illegal. That being said, since it has

become criminalized, it means that it is rather difficult to study due to the policies intact. As a

society, we want to regulate and reduce the usage of marijuana as well as implement laws that

make it a criminal offense (Chaloupka, 1995). This idea of influential perspective can be shown

through alcohol usage, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism over

88,000 people annually die from alcohol; however, since it is not framed as a substance that is a

detrimental threat to our lives, alcohol is generally overly accepted in American society. As

college students, alcohol has become a staple piece in the stereotypical university life, yet we do

not consider the fact that it actually can be incredibly lethal to our wellbeing. To my knowledge,

our society is easily persuaded, and this is why the media is such a powerful tool to influence and

manipulate the masses. For example, political campaigns are heavily reliant on the media's

perspective to influence the nation about who to elect. Likewise, advertising within businesses is

a necessity because corporations rely on people buying their products to be successful and

generate a solid profit. As shown through those couple examples, it is plausible to assume that

the language we use to advertise is incredibly important when we factor in how we shape our

beliefs and perspectives. Using this ideology, it can be applied to the changing views of
RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 4

marijuana as well as its growing acceptance in recent years, despite the fact that it went through a

period of immense damnation.

In order to really analyze the drastic sociocultural change in marijuana acceptance, I

analyzed three different perspectives: 1970’s, 2000’s and 2018-2019. I decided to use these

different era’s because it encapsulates milestones of the gradual acceptance of marijuana. The

1970s was an era that viewed marijuana as an incredibly dangerous substance and often

associated with inappropriate behavior, religious unholiness, and mental insanity. Yet, when we

enter the 2000’s perspective, it has started to become a little more accepted, society becomes

split between supporting marijuana and keeping it illegal. Lastly, current times have proved to be

a society that has openly accepted marijuana as something being normal in our society, however,

take that statement with a grain of salt. Our perception in current times is still persistent against

marijuana usage, and that can be completely supported by the idea that it is hard to accept

something that has been considered detrimental for decades. It displays this idea that it is all

based on the perspective at the time, if we were to fast forward in the future we will probably see

almost all people accepting of marijuana and questioning why it was ever perceived as

something terrible for us.

As a psychology major, I have always been interested in how substances can alter the

mind, however, while that can be considered an unethical thing for me to test, it is still an

interesting topic to me which is why I decided to look in depth on marijuana acceptance.

Likewise, I am a journalism-fanatic and have always loved how the media can be influential to

our lives, and when I combined these two interests, I knew I could find some enthralling

research. In terms of researching this topic, I think it will be thought-provoking to analyze our

perspective on marijuana in current times since it is still in the process and very relevant to our
RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 5

society now. Throughout my whole childhood, I have been taught that drugs were considered

incredibly dangerous, and that included marijuana usage. Now, as an adult, I am presented with

this societal idea that now some drugs are admissible and that is quite a shock when I analyze it

from that perspective. It goes to show that perhaps, we jump to conclusions about products in our

society that we are unaware of, in this case, the true effects of marijuana on people as a whole,

and automatically assume the worst case. Assuming this means that the majority of people are

going to follow this ideology regardless of its validity.

The 1970’s

Jumping into the 1970s, we see an era that is quite

repulsed to the idea of marijuana, moreover, society views

this drug as an extremely negative habit that people can

get addicted to. Typical marijuana advertisements were

usually associated marijuana with inappropriate behavior,

or something that was extremely devilish. As seen from

Figure 11, it is associated with disrupting thoughts such as

“Shame Horror Despair” and “Smoke That Gets In

Youth’s Eye’s.” Likewise, it is associated with

inappropriate behavior like “Weird Orgies, Wild Parties,

Unleashed Passions,” as well as, the diction in the center

of the advertisement all making marijuana seem more like a . Marijuana, especially in this era,

was completely illegal, and considered a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it is classified as one of the

most dangerous drugs, being highly addictive and potentially lethal, associated with drugs like

1
This image was retrieve by https://www.pinterest.com/pin/103864335127109133/?lp=true
RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 6

LSD and Heroine. One of the more notable aspects of advertisements in this era was how easily

it was related to the hellish activities; in respect to figure 1, the “Weed with Roots in Hell” is

symbolic of the damnation of marijuana. One possibility for this reason is that when the anti-

marijuana advertisements were taking society by storm, the fear of satanism had arisen as well.

While the Church of Satan believes in the criminalization of illicit drugs such as marijuana, this

generation has associated the alleged evils of satanism with the usage of recreational marijuana

(Adams, 2018). Off of personal observation, I believe because society values religion, more

specifically religions based off of Christianity, viewed the satanic religion as a threat to society,

or at least a threat to the idealistic norms of society.

The 2000’s

With the emergence of legalizing marijuana, a unique property of these advertisements’

sparks from the controversy of whether or not it should be accepted. Whether it be an argument

for or against marijuana, the advertisements of the era have seemingly the same kind of structure,

diction, and overall stylistic devices. Unlike the nineteen seventies where advertisements

presumed the worst about marijuana with little to no evidence applied, the 2000’s era uses real

life images and factual-based information to portray the argument. One of the reasons why

society is more concerned about having logical explanations on advertisements is because it has

been going through the legalization process. While my research is not based on the politics of

marijuana and its legalization process, it is something that I must acknowledge because

individuals in society are more critical of the content they see presented by digital media. That

being said, many of the language is shifted to fit this kind of ideology.

The Current Times: 2018-2019

RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 7

In the society we live in today, when we view marijuana advertisements it seemingly is

the complete opposite to those presented in the 1970’s. For this reason, I believe with the

emergence of new research done by studies upon studies testing the properties of marijuana,

there is a newly acceptably

presence of it in society.

Marijuana advertisements

currently are often encouraging,

wanting users to seek out ways to

incorporate marijuana into their

health regimine. MedMen is a

cannabis-based company in

California that showcases advertisements of everyday people such as nurses, veterinarians, and

even police officers and give them the label as “stoner.” These advertisements are sought to

catch users attention and feel somewhat at ease knowing that something that used to be illegal is

now legal and that it is okay to use. To further my analysis, MedMen also uses the legality of

marijuana to their advantage by using the “It’s Legal” as their main way of showcasing it as a

means of healing instead of seeing it as a means of causing disruptive behavior. While Marijuana

is still classified as a Class 1 drug, it has easily become much more notably acceptable in our

society and this can be showcased through the research I have conducted, and the advertisements

displayed.
RUNNING HEAD: Sociocultural Shift of Marijuana 8

Work Cited

Knight, R., Sheposh, J., & Bryson, J. (1974). College Student Marijuana Use and Societal

Alienation. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 15(1), 28-35. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2136923

Estoup, A. C., Moise-Campbell, C., Varma, M., & Stewart, D. G. (2016). The Impact of

Marijuana Legalization on Adolescent Use, Consequences, and Perceived Risk. Substance Use &

Misuse, 51(14), 1881–1887. Retrieved from

https://login.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login?auth=shibb&url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

?direct=true&db=sph&AN=118246506&site=eds-live&scope=site

Chaloupka, F. (1995). Public Policies and Private Anti-Health Behavior. The American

Economic Review, 85(2), 45-49. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2117889