Attitudes Toward Cannabis Are Changing—Here’s Why

It’s no secret that the public conception, as well as the legality surrounding cannabis, is constantly changing. As a company that specializes in CBD hemp oil, Healthy Hemp Oil took an interest in studying how the public’s view towards cannabis use has changed over time. CBD products have become increasingly popular, but the company wanted to delve deeper and look into how people truly feel about the substance.

Conducted by Survata, an independent research firm in San Francisco, the study involved randomized questions and a sample representative of the population in order to eliminate bias. A total of 454 online respondents participated in the survey.

“We can see that attitudes have shifted because people are buying cannabis, but collectively, what do people think,” says Brandon Nolte, founder and CEO at Healthy Hemp Oil. “How does the general population feel about cannabis use? We wanted to learn how people felt about cannabis and truly see how the attitude has changed.”

57 percent of respondents stated that they came from states that had not legalized cannabis for recreational use, while about 45 percent came from states that legalized marijuana for medicinal use. Out of that, almost 61 percent of surveyors think that cannabis should be legal for recreational use. When asked what respondents associated cannabis with, most of the responses were met with positive reactions. A little over 53 percent of people connected cannabis to relaxation, a common reaction to CBD–a chemical compound found in cannabis–products. CBD has been shown to promote muscle relaxation, while THC, another element found in cannabis, has been connected to relaxation from mental strain. The main difference between THC and CBD is that CBD–or cannabidiol–is a non-psychoactive chemical compound found in cannabis that usually evokes a feeling of relaxation. THC, also known as tetrahydrocannabinol, is a psychedelic compound found in cannabis that affects the mental state, or "gets you high."

Infographic courtesy of Healthy Hemp Oil

Overall, there has been a change in mood towards marijuana, as studies like this have shown. With more CBD products coming out, research has proven the positive impacts that elements from cannabis have. Currently, marijuana is still illegal in the U.S. under federal law, but states have been taking charge in changing this through legalizing it either for medicinal or recreational use.

For more details check out the rest of the survey here.